A stage manager holds a production together from the first rehearsal to closing night, and the theatre hiring you wants to see that you have done it on shows like theirs. What they weigh is the size of the productions you ran, the performances you called, the casts and crews you scheduled, and whether any of it was union work. The proof lives in figures every company understands: weeks of rehearsal, cues called a night, actors on the call sheet and cities on the tour.
How to Write a Stage Manager Resume - Key Takeaways
- List companies newest first on 1 page and name the productions inside each entry's bullets rather than as separate jobs.
- Write your exact title for each stretch of work, such as Assistant Stage Manager or Production Stage Manager, and start a new entry when it changed.
- Give each bullet a stage management figure: rehearsal weeks, cast size, performances called, cues per show or tour cities.
- Put Equity membership in your headline line and summary, and keep Certificates for OSHA cards and first aid.
- Name the software from the posting that you have used, such as Excel, Google Workspace or QLab, in Skills and once more in a bullet.
- Keep personal details off the page and run the final file through an ATS resume checker before you apply through a theatre's portal.
What production managers look for in a stage manager resume
The person who hires a stage manager, usually a production manager or an artistic director, reads your resume to answer 1 question: can you run this season's shows without them having to check on you? O*NET's closest occupation for stage managers is producers and directors, and its task list includes distributing rehearsal call sheets and script copies, arranging rehearsal space, and budgeting and scheduling. Your bullets should show that work at the scale you did it.
Lay the page out with these sections, using names theatre application portals parse without trouble:
- Name, headline with your title and union status (for example, Production Stage Manager, AEA) and contact details
- A summary of 2 to 3 lines directly under the headline, which takes no heading of its own
- Work Experience, newest first, 1 entry per title at each company
- Skills, with the software you schedule, report and run cues in
- Certificates, for OSHA cards and first aid
- Education
- If space allows: Languages, Interests, and 1 extra block of volunteering or achievements
Best format for a stage manager resume
Pick the reverse-chronological resume format: your latest company first, each entry with your title, the company, where it is based, and the dates you began and left, as MM/YYYY. Stage managers climb in steps a theatre recognizes, from production assistant to assistant stage manager, stage manager and production stage manager, and newest-first order puts each step in view. Teachers, event planners and others moving into the work keep the same order and lead each older entry with its scheduling and coordination results.
- Best for most stage managersReverse-chronologicalYour jobs, newest first, with your results under each one.Best for: A steady work history in your field
- FunctionalSkills grouped up top, with a short work history below.Best for: Gaps or very little experience
- CombinationA skills section first, then your full work history.Best for: A career change with strong skills
1 page fits almost every stage manager, even after many seasons, because you group productions by company instead of listing each show as its own job. A summer festival you returned to for 3 seasons becomes 1 entry with 1 date range. Only a production stage manager with 15+ years across Broadway, national tours or opera houses needs a second page.
| Setting | What to use |
|---|---|
| Length | 1 page; a second only after 15+ years at several large houses or tours |
| Job title line | Your exact title: Assistant Stage Manager, Stage Manager or Production Stage Manager |
| Show credits | Grouped under the company, with the production names inside the bullets |
| Dates | MM/YYYY ranges per title held, with Present for your current season |
| Body text | A clear sans serif font sized between 10 and 12 pt |
| Headshot and private details | Leave the headshot off, as most US and Canadian resumes do, and never list your age, marital status or SSN |
| File type | PDF, or Word when the theatre's application portal requests it |
Most US and Canadian resumes carry no photo. Stage managers are hired on the shows they ran and the people they kept on schedule, so your space goes to credits and figures rather than a headshot.
Stage manager resume summary vs. objective
If you have been paid to stage-manage or assistant stage-manage a production, write a resume summary: your title, your years, the kind of theatre you know and your biggest run. If your credits so far come from school or community shows, a resume objective fits better: the role you are after, then the production that proves you are ready. Take the number in either one from a bullet further down the page.
Stage manager resume summary formula
Title with X years in type of theatre or production, union status. Your longest run or biggest show, with performances, cast size or cities. Software or credential that matches the posting.
Example
Stage manager with 8 years in Chicago storefront and mid-size theatre, an Equity member since 2021. Called 58 performances of a 22-person musical after writing 41 rehearsal reports over its 6-week rehearsal period. Builds calendars in Google Workspace and runs QLab.
Don't
Organized and passionate stage manager who loves bringing stories to life and thrives in a collaborative environment.
Do
Touring stage manager with 4 years on non-Equity national tours, keeping a company of 14 on schedule across 3 productions and 118 cities. Holds a current Red Cross first aid and CPR certificate.
The rewrite gives a title, the type of work, the size of the company, the scale of the touring and a current credential.
How to write stage manager work experience bullets with numbers
Your current company earns 3 to 4 bullets and each older one 1 to 3, every one opening on a verb. Stage management already runs on counts: rehearsal hours, reports sent, cues called, performances, actors and crew on the call sheet. Turn those into achievements on your resume instead of a list of duties every stage manager shares.
| Area | What to count | Example bullet |
|---|---|---|
| Rehearsals | Weeks, cast size, reports sent | Ran a 4-week rehearsal period for a cast of 9 and sent 23 rehearsal reports. |
| Performances | Performances called, cues per show | Called 64 performances of a musical with 280 cues each night. |
| Tech and departments | Design departments, crew size, tech days | Coordinated 7 design departments and a crew of 12 through tech week. |
| Touring | Cities, venues, advance work | Managed a 31-city tour, advancing every venue 2 weeks before arrival. |
| Budgets and supplies | Petty cash, rehearsal supplies, savings | Tracked a $3,200 petty cash fund for rehearsal supplies and closed it $210 under. |
| Safety | Walkthroughs, incident reports, drills | Held a safety walkthrough with the cast and crew before each of 8 productions opened. |
Below is 1 stage manager's entry with the figures filled in. The current company carries the house size, the run and the people; the older summer theatre job is shorter and covers 3 seasons in 1 entry.
Work Experience
- Stage-manage 5 productions a season in a 299-seat thrust theatre, from first rehearsal through closing.
- Called 212 performances over the last 3 seasons, including a musical running 340 cues a night.
- Send rehearsal reports to a 26-person production team within 1 hour of each rehearsal ending.
- Build weekly rehearsal calendars for casts of up to 18 around actors' outside commitments.
- Assisted on 9 summer productions, running a deck crew of 4 through 30+ scene shifts a show.
- Tracked 150+ props and preset lists for 2 shows playing in rotating repertory.
Don't
Responsible for calling the show.
Do
Called 96 performances of a 14-actor drama and logged act timings in every performance report.
The rewrite shows the length of the run, the size of the company and the paperwork that went with it.
Don't
Helped with rehearsals.
Do
Ran 5 weeks of rehearsals for a cast of 11, notating blocking for 47 scenes and posting the next day's call each evening.
Stage management skills and software for your resume
Choose 6 to 8 skills from the posting that a bullet already proves. Stage managers are hired as much for how they handle people as for their paperwork, so let your results show the soft skills in the second list rather than claiming them one by one.
Hard skills for stage managers
- Calling cues
- Prompt book upkeep
- Blocking notation
- Rehearsal and performance reports
- Rehearsal scheduling and daily calls
- Taping out ground plans
- Running backstage shifts
- Show maintenance after opening
- Tour advancing
- Emergency and evacuation procedures
Soft skills theatres value in stage managers
- Composure during live performance
- Diplomacy with actors and designers
- Discretion
- Precise written notes
- Quick problem solving
- Keeping a room on schedule
List your software with your skills and name it again in the bullet where you used it. O*NET flags Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Office as in-demand technology for producers and directors, and lists Google Workspace, Slack and Zoom as hot technology. Beyond those, write the stage management tools the posting names and you have run on a show, such as QLab for cue playback, Vectorworks for ground plans or a scheduling tool like Propared.
Equity membership, OSHA and first aid on a stage manager resume
Stage management has no license, so the Certificates section holds safety training, and certifications on your resume each need the issuer and the year. The line most theatres look for first is union status. Actors' Equity Association, the US union that represents more than 51,000 professional actors and stage managers, admits members through work under an Equity contract or through Open Access for those who have worked professionally as a stage manager in a theatrical production.
| Credential | Issued by | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Equity membership (AEA) | Actors' Equity Association | Work under an Equity contract, or Open Access after professional work as a stage manager in a theatrical production. It is a membership, not a certificate. |
| OSHA 10-Hour General Industry | An OSHA-authorized Outreach trainer | A 10-hour class on common job-related safety and health hazards, ending in a course completion card. OSHA says none of its Outreach courses is a certification. |
| Adult and Pediatric First Aid/CPR/AED | American Red Cross | Complete the course to receive a certificate valid for 2 years, which covers children and teens in the cast as well as adults. |
Where Equity membership goes
Write AEA after your title in the headline line, such as Stage Manager, AEA, and repeat it in your summary. Keep it out of Certificates, since it is a union membership. If you are not a member, leave union status off entirely; a theatre hiring on a non-Equity contract reads the gap as normal.
Certificates
- OSHA 10-Hour General Industry, course completion card, OSHA Outreach Training Program, 2023
- Adult and Pediatric First Aid/CPR/AED, American Red Cross, 2025
How to list a stage management degree (BFA, BA or MFA)
Many stage managers hold a BFA or BA in stage management or theatre, and some go on to an MFA. Others learn on the job through production assistant and assistant stage manager work, and a strong run of credits outweighs a missing degree. When listing education on a resume, give the degree name, the school and where it sits, then the month you graduated, with a GPA only if it is 3.5 or higher and you finished in the last 2 to 3 years.
Use the school's name from the year you graduated. Yale's drama school, which trains stage managers, was known as the Yale School of Drama until a gift from David Geffen in 2021, so a 2020 graduate writes Yale School of Drama and a 2023 graduate writes David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University. Add 1 line naming how many school productions you stage-managed, and cut it once paid credits fill your Work Experience.
Education
Stage manager on 5 mainstage productions.
Entry-level and career-change stage manager resumes
Without a paid stage management job yet, use an entry-level resume layout: a short objective, Education placed high on the page, and each production you have worked on written with the numbers a paid credit would carry. Production assistant work on a professional show counts as Work Experience from the first contract.
- University productions: your role (stage manager or assistant), the run length, the cast size and the cues you called.
- Summer theatre and festival internships: the season length, the number of productions and which tasks you ran yourself.
- Community theatre: listed under Volunteer Experience when it was unpaid, with the show and your role.
- Production assistant contracts: the company, the production and the stage manager you supported.
Don't
Theatre graduate eager to gain experience as a stage manager.
Do
Theatre graduate seeking an assistant stage manager contract. Worked on 6 university productions, 4 as assistant stage manager and 2 as stage manager, and finished a 10-week summer stock internship.
Productions, roles and a professional internship turn the objective into evidence.
Teachers, event coordinators and project coordinators already manage groups to a schedule and write things down for people who were not in the room. On a career-change resume, keep reverse-chronological order, put your first theatre credit at the top, and write your older bullets around the transferable skills a stage manager uses: calendars, reports, rosters and calm handling of a room. Explain why you moved into theatre in a cover letter, in 2 or 3 sentences that name the production that brought you in.
Stage Manager resume FAQ
How do I list show credits on a stage manager resume?
Group them by company. Each theatre, festival or touring producer gets 1 Work Experience entry per title you held there, with a date range, and the productions go inside the bullets with their run length, cast size or performances called.
Should I put Equity membership on a stage manager resume?
Yes, if you are a member of Actors' Equity Association. Write AEA after your title in the headline line and mention it in your summary. Do not list it under Certificates, because it is a union membership rather than a credential.
How long should a stage manager resume be?
1 page for almost everyone, since grouping productions by company keeps a long credit list short. A production stage manager with 15+ years across large houses, national tours or opera can run to 2 pages, with the most recent companies on page 1.
What software should a stage manager list?
List the programs the posting names that you have used on a show. Spreadsheets and shared calendars, such as Microsoft Excel and Google Workspace, appear on most postings; QLab, Vectorworks or a scheduling tool such as Propared belong on the list only if you have run them in rehearsal or performance.
Can assistant stage manager work count as stage management experience?
Yes, as long as the title stays accurate. Write Assistant Stage Manager in the job line and show the tasks you ran yourself, such as running the deck, tracking props or calling a put-in rehearsal. Never retitle ASM work as Stage Manager.
How do I show touring experience on a stage manager resume?
Give the tour its own entry under the producing company, with Touring Stage Manager or your exact title. Count the cities, the weeks on the road and the company size, and add a bullet on how you advanced venues or handled load-ins.
How much do stage managers make?
The BLS does not publish a separate wage for stage managers. The closest group, producers and directors, had a median annual wage of $90,360 in May 2025 in BLS wage data, a figure that also covers film and TV producers. Keep pay off your resume and raise it in the interview.
Should I list school productions on a stage manager resume?
Only until paid credits replace them. While you are a student or a new graduate, list the productions where you were stage manager or assistant, with their numbers. After your first professional contract, keep 1 line about school shows in your Education entry.
Next steps
Choose the example that matches your title and type of theatre, keep its layout, and swap every figure for your own rehearsal weeks, performances called and company sizes. Then build yours in our resume builder, or open one of the resume templates, and send it alongside a short letter that names the production you ran best.