Beth Osnes

Research Interests

Beth Osnes 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.

Biography

Osnes’ 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.