‘Hi, my name is Tom Hullyer. I graduated from The Urdang
Academy in 2012 after gaining a diploma in Professional Musical Theatre. At
college, I played several in house musical roles including Benoit in Martin
Guerre, Amos Hart in Chicago, The Wiz in The Wiz and Charley Kringas in Merrily
We Roll Along. Since graduating, I have worked across several performance
mediums. These include a local fringe production of the musical Half a Sixpence
playing the lead, Arthur Kipps. I have also experienced film, working on a
couple of shorts called I'd Do Anything and Angel Blue. Feature film and
television work include supporting roles for The Theory of Everything, Mr.
Selfridge and most notably a small featured role for Suffragette. I am eager to
convert my diploma into a full degree so that I may later pursue teaching, acting
in particular. I am looking forward to starting Middlesex's BAPP programme, one
that offers the opportunity to extend my knowledge and capabilities within my
field of work. I expect my current methods of practice to be tested against
ones found on this course and, as a result, be provoked by new avenues of
thought to develop fresh approaches and build upon existing ones.’
For my everyday professional life, I have two CV’s within
my keeping. The first I use on a regular basis which directly relates to my
profession as a performer. Whether it be writing for an agent’s attention or sending
it off to a casting director requesting and responding to an audition, this is
the one I most often find spending my time over:
I am very pleased with the general result of my personal
professional performer CV although I am aware of its limitations to present all
of my available credits. Some of these limitations enforced by myself to keep
all information to one page. Others are by constraints of the programme
interface, in this case Microsoft Word. This is a major advantage of being a
member of the performer directory known as ‘Spotlight’. As well as being
published physically per annual year, the directory offers an online service
for performers and casting directors alike for viewing performer CV’s in one
place. The website’s CV editing tools don’t allow for customisation with
regards to the layout of a CV. All sections are displayed in a fixed position
and the layout will remain the same for each user e.g. headshot, followed by
production credits, to be followed by skills and personal information, etc.
While the website allows me to upload all credits due to the limitless space of
a webpage, I feel personality and individuality are lost in the process. My CV
will display the same template as everyone else signed to the directory. It is
hard enough to be shortlisted for auditions and castings when my height, hair
and eye colour, voice type can be put alongside dozens of other candidates with
exactly the same features as described on my CV. I don’t want to make it any
harder for myself with a bland layout for viewers to simply skim over. While I
value my membership with Spotlight and continue to update it as and when it needs
to be, I try to direct my former CV mentioned towards people’s attention when I
can. This is not out of a sense of pride after spending hours laboriously
crafting it (I did but that’s beside the point), but because I feel this
version better represents me as a performer and individual. Please follow the
link below for a look at my Spotlight profile.
The third and final CV is my most general yet underused. In comparison to my performer CV, this one does not see a lot of use. However, like the others, I respect its importance and continue to make improvements when appropriate. This particular CV comes into its own for everything outside of my professional performance activities, such as applying for a job in retail or an educational establishment. Despite being my oldest and first attempt at creating one, I am happy with its outcome. I have not needed to edit too much over the years, save for a couple of new qualifications.
Both CV’s have their own attributes and work for separate
purposes. Various performer CV’s may vary in terms of their template but the
information contained highlight similar feats i.e. establishment of training, production
credits, personal skills, etc. I perceive my professional performer CV to have
a simplistic yet bold design, created to accentuate particular areas of
interest as aforementioned. A casting director will often have precious, little
time to glance at this information so it is crucial that the correct
information be displayed but also give a sense of self. The Spotlight CV will,
for the most part, follow a similar vain. My general CV needs to give more a
sense of my overall activities and achievements, not specifically from my time as
a performer. Sections such as ‘Hobbies & Interests’ allow to show a flare
of personality, something that the former CV does not cater for. The same
cannot be said for the style of presentation, however. Due to the necessity to
include all awarded qualifications, places of work, references for contacts,
this leaves little room for experimentation with layout. Thankfully, in most
cases, this is not a problem when being viewed by potential employers. They
will probably be studying your CV in detail before offering you an
interview/job position as there is a lot more information to account for than
that of the performer’s CV. Ultimately, the CV’s play their parts in helping
further prospects within their given fields. It is knowing which would be best
utilised for a given situation.
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