Beth Osnes

Affiliated Faculty are not employees of the Center for Asian Studies. Please contact this faculty member at their home department.

Education

Ph.D., M.A., Theatre, University of Colorado Boulder
B.A., Theology, Marquette University

Profile

Beth Osnes is a Professor of Theatre and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado. She is a theatre and performance studies artist/scholar who is active in applied performance and creative climate communication. She engages in performance to co-author and actualize an equitable, survivable, and thrive-able future for all life and the ecosystems upon which life depends. Her most recent collaboration, Side by Side, is an art-science approach to youth engagement for climate communication in relationship with local birds. This project features award-winning films of large-scale bird puppets of numerous Colorado species. Side by Side was awarded major funding through the National Science Foundation Advancing Informal STEM Learning from 2023-2027. Her most recent creative work is The Butterfly Affect, a performance experience designed for participants to travel through a butterfly’s metamorphosis from egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, to butterfly as a way of receiving guidance for change from the natural world. With her collaborator Max Boykoff, she explores climate comedy through teaching and scholarship. Open Source Materials for a climate musical by Osnes, Shine, are available for engaging youth in authoring climate and energy solutions.  She co-developed Enacting Climate, an online open-source collection of climate-related tools and activities, for student learning and climate action. Her books include Theatre for Women’s Participation in Sustainable Development and Performance for Resilience: Engaging Youth on Energy and Climate through Music, Movement, and Theatre. She is co-director of Inside the Greenhouse for creative climate communication and co-founder of SPEAK for female and non-binary youth vocal empowerment. She is featured in the award-winning documentary Mother: Caring for 7 Billion. She serves as the faculty advisor for CU’s Arts & Sciences Support of Education Through Technology.

Selected Publications

Osnes, Beth. (2017). Performance for Resilience: Engaging Youth on Energy and Climate Through Music, Movement, and Theatre. London: Palgrave Pivot.

(2014). Theatre for Women’s Participation in Sustainable Development. New York: Routledge.

(2011). The Shadow Puppet Theatre of Malaysia-A Study of the Wayang Kulit with Performance Scripts and Puppet Designs. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.

(2001). Acting: An International Encyclopedia. Denver: ABC-Clio.