Beth Osnes

Beth Osnes PhD, 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.