Do me a favor, and critique my portfolio? [Lighting]

[Footer]

Having nothing to show is exactly what most people have at your age. So, your goal is to get some gigs before hitting college in 2012? That is doable. Your not going to make any real cash, so keep that part time job going.

Call your local rental houses. Google "theatre jobs denver". Call your local community theatres and get on their volunteer list. Call your local theatres and ask if they need anyone to sweep the floor or sort screws. Do anything you can. With no real education or contacts, its the only way to go. My wife got her current job with a cold resume'. Send them out.

I have a resume' on my site. Search around here to see others.

 

[DuckJordan]

Also, while some have been able to be adequate at all trades of this industry, none have been masters of all. Its early on to figure out exactly what you want to do on every show. I supposidly always wanted to be a sound designer, then a lighting designer, then a rental house owner, and now am figuring out the wonders of doing actual Production Electrician work. This all happened within a year, and I'm only about 2 years older than you. Work any gig find out exactly what you like and start specializing until then keep as much info about yourself on that website. Any kind of work you've done not strictly theater, put the summer job of cashiering for a local fireworks shop. Put that large name grocery store on their you worked with for however long.

The point is with as few shows that you can claim as being the sole designer or lead designer (I'm in the same boat), Put anything and everything on your website. I got my latest gig (working with the local union, but not being a card holder) by cold calling several production companies in the area, while the owner didn't need anyone for his own business the union called him asking if he knew anyone looking for work, He gave my name and number to them and $300 and 20 hours later, Ive got some more experience.

I could email you my resume to show you what I am talking about as far as putting as much as possible on it to land the jobs and gigs. PM me if you'd like a copy (no website yet, too expensive for how much I'd be able to use it)

 

[josh88]

Footer beat me to it, I was going to suggest see if you can get in at a rental house. If you can work with a company repairing lights or systems it would be a good way to make the cash you need and you're learning intricacies of different fixtures and such. If it is the type of company that also does set up and delivery and the whole nine yards you could get the experience of load ins, corporate stuff, a bunch of variety. Had a friend who worked for a large rental house in Ohio which managed to get her an internship with cirque and then a job with them after the internship was up.

As far as a resume goes, the nice thing about a site is, in my case since I am so varied I've got a master resume that just lists everything I do in a year and then offers my real resume that I hand out to people. I'd say since you don't have a ton of specific work yet just start working backwards and listing the stuff you've done and at the bottom include various skills that make you more marketable. If you can read music or program certain boards, or have experience running a forklift, those little aspects might be just enough to make you a better pick than someone who doesn't have the same skill. As you get more credits under your belt then you can split the resume up into the LD section or the deck crew section etc.

it's funny because I just recently found a copy of Footer's resume on my laptop from a year or so ago when I was reworking some of my stuff, I had downloaded it just to compare and see what other people were doing with theirs how they laid things out. I think it had been labeled something like tech resume and it was in with 3 or 4 outdated versions of my own so it wasn't till I opened it again that I realized it wasn't even mine.

 

[derekleffew]

...I think it had been labeled something like tech resume and it was in with 3 or 4 outdated versions of my own so it wasn't till I opened it again that I realized it wasn't even mine.

Just change the name at the top and send it out. No one will ever know.

 

[Pie4Weebl]

Just change the name at the top and send it out. No one will ever know.

Why would anyone ever want to pretend to be Footer?