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28. Beth Osnes — Shine: A Climate Musical
Subscribe to Chrysalis at https://www.johnfiege.earth/
Show notes: https://www.johnfiege.earth/28-beth-osnes-shine-a-climate-musical
Listen to Chrysalis on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Captivate.
Young people are a crucial part of transforming the climate crisis into a more promising future, but their voices are seldom included in discussions of how to reshape our societies in response to the threats of climate change.
Beth Osnes wants to change this and get young people more involved in these crucial climate conversations. She is a theater artist who works with young people in fun and creative ways to make theater that engages the climate crisis. Her performances allow young people—with their imaginations, their movements, and their bodies—to enact both the tragedies and utopic possibilities of the ecological crisis moment we all inhabit.
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Beth is a professor of theatre and environmental studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she co-directs an initiative for creative climate communication, called Inside the Greenhouse. She co-developed an online collection of climate-related resources, tools, and activities for students, called Enacting Climate. Her work has won support from the National Science Foundation.
Listen on Spotify
We discuss her climate musical, called Shine, which is available for free through open source materials to any educators or others who want to put on performances in their own schools or communities. I recorded this conversation on November 1, 2022.
I’m John Fiege, and this is Chrysalis. You can subscribe at johnfiege.earth, where you will also find show notes and all episodes of the podcast, plus my writing, photographs, and films.
Here is Beth Osnes.
Beth OsnesBeth Osnes is a theatre and performance studies artist/scholar who is active in applied performance and creative climate communication. Her current primary interest resides in the use of performance as a tool for supporting youth in empowering their civic voices. Applied performance refers to performance used explicitly for positive social change, which is characterized by process-oriented work on an issue identified by the community. It often takes place in a non-traditional performance space (live or digital) by participants who may not identify as performers, and the work together need not result in a performance: the critical reflection and resulting social action that emerge from the process are paramount. Beth’s approach is highly interdisciplinary, borrowing theoretical foundations and histories of practice from women and gender studies, feminist ecology, voice pathology, education, environmental studies, sustainable development, and applied theatre. Beth seeks to support youth voices to author and actualize an equitable, survivable, and thrive-able future for all life and the ecosystems upon which all life relies.
As a Professor of Theatre and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado, Beth is the Faculty Associate Director for Student Engagement for the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education and co-director of Inside the Greenhouse, an initiative for creative communication on climate, Beth toured an original musical Shine to Rockefeller Foundation 100 Resilient Cities locations to facilitate youth voices in resilience planning and published the book Performance for Resilience: Engaging Youth on Energy and Climate through Music, Movement, and Theatre. Open Source Materials for Shine are available through the Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network. She is As co-founder of SPEAK, Beth recently co-published a curriculum for vocal empowerment for young women’s civic voices that is evidence-based with Dr. Chelsea Hackett and the MAIA Impact School in Guatemala. Beth’s book Theatre for Women’s Participation in Sustainable Development includes her work specific to gender equity in Panama, Guatemala, India, Nicaragua, and the Navajo Nation. Her life as the youngest of a family of ten and her mother’s activist work is featured in the award-winning documentary “Mother: Caring for 7 Billion.” Her book, The Shadow Puppet Theatre of Malaysia-A Study of the Wayang Kulit with Performance Scripts and Puppet Designs (2011), is an in-depth study of Malaysian shadow puppet theatre based on research and performance training as a Fulbright Scholar in Malaysia.
Listen on YouTube
As co-founder of the former Mothers Acting Up (2002-2011), Beth toured a program in partnership with Philanthropiece Foundation entitled “the MOTHER tour” to locations around the world to create a global community of mothers moving from concern to action on behalf of their most passionate concerns. The tour included an original one-woman performance, (M)other, and a workshop entitled Empowering Mother Voices. In conjunction with this program, Beth developed a methodology specific to gender equity in clean energy development using theatre as a tool to include the voices of the women living in poverty in the planning and implementation of development projects in Panama, Guatemala, India, Nicaragua, Namibia, and the Navajo Nation. She presented this work at the World Renewable Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi in 2010, the World Renewable Energy Forum in Denver in 2012, and the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio in 2012.
Listen on Captivate
Beth lives in Boulder, Colorado, with her life partner and husband, JP, with whom she has raised three children, Peter, Melisande, and Lerato. Each of them has contributed significantly to what she has been able to create.
Recommended Readings & Media- Shine – Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network
- https://cleanet.org/resources/56028.html
- Performance for Resilience: Engaging Youth on Energy and Climate through Music, Movement and Theatre, by Beth Osnes
- https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-67289-2
- Theatre for Women's Participation in Sustainable Development, by Beth Osnes
- https://www.routledge.com/Theatre-for-Womens-Participation-in-Sustainable-Development/Osnes/p/book/9781138189669?srsltid=AfmBOooWGexxmVM2XZcDdpOdyyz1VNSkqHuJgmYjoI8fSqe-LgnVy-Fx
- The Shadow Puppet Theatre of Malaysia: A Study of Wayang Kulit with Performance Scripts and Puppet Designs, by Beth Osnes
- https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/the-shadow-puppet-theatre-of-malaysia/
- Mother: Caring for 7 Billion (2011)
- https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/mother-caring-for-7-billion-2011/
- The Motherhood Movement
- https://mommuseum.org/motherhood-movement-film/
- (M)other
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gYIX6fIW1E
- Empowering Mother Voices
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3OSHfYoaG0
- Local Acts: Community-Based Performance in the United States, by Jan Cohen-Cruz
- https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/local-acts/9780813535500
- SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education
- https://www.colorado.edu/center/spike/
- Inside the Greenhouse
- https://insidethegreenhouse.org
- SPEAK: Vocal Empowerment for Young Women and Girls
- https://speak.world
Credits
This episode was researched by Lydia Montgomery and edited by Sarah Westrich, with additional editing by Isabella Fleming, Amy Cavanaugh, Arthur Koenig, Kate Fair, and Marta Kondratiuk. Music is by Daniel Rodríguez Vivas. Mixing is by Morgan Honaker.
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Subscribe at https://www.johnfiege.earth/
View all episodes
By John FiegeSubscribe to Chrysalis at https://www.johnfiege.earth/
Show notes: https://www.johnfiege.earth/28-beth-osnes-shine-a-climate-musical
Listen to Chrysalis on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and Captivate.
Young people are a crucial part of transforming the climate crisis into a more promising future, but their voices are seldom included in discussions of how to reshape our societies in response to the threats of climate change.
Beth Osnes wants to change this and get young people more involved in these crucial climate conversations. She is a theater artist who works with young people in fun and creative ways to make theater that engages the climate crisis. Her performances allow young people—with their imaginations, their movements, and their bodies—to enact both the tragedies and utopic possibilities of the ecological crisis moment we all inhabit.
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Beth is a professor of theatre and environmental studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she co-directs an initiative for creative climate communication, called Inside the Greenhouse. She co-developed an online collection of climate-related resources, tools, and activities for students, called Enacting Climate. Her work has won support from the National Science Foundation.
Listen on Spotify
We discuss her climate musical, called Shine, which is available for free through open source materials to any educators or others who want to put on performances in their own schools or communities. I recorded this conversation on November 1, 2022.
I’m John Fiege, and this is Chrysalis. You can subscribe at johnfiege.earth, where you will also find show notes and all episodes of the podcast, plus my writing, photographs, and films.
Here is Beth Osnes.
Beth OsnesBeth Osnes is a theatre and performance studies artist/scholar who is active in applied performance and creative climate communication. Her current primary interest resides in the use of performance as a tool for supporting youth in empowering their civic voices. Applied performance refers to performance used explicitly for positive social change, which is characterized by process-oriented work on an issue identified by the community. It often takes place in a non-traditional performance space (live or digital) by participants who may not identify as performers, and the work together need not result in a performance: the critical reflection and resulting social action that emerge from the process are paramount. Beth’s approach is highly interdisciplinary, borrowing theoretical foundations and histories of practice from women and gender studies, feminist ecology, voice pathology, education, environmental studies, sustainable development, and applied theatre. Beth seeks to support youth voices to author and actualize an equitable, survivable, and thrive-able future for all life and the ecosystems upon which all life relies.
As a Professor of Theatre and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado, Beth is the Faculty Associate Director for Student Engagement for the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education and co-director of Inside the Greenhouse, an initiative for creative communication on climate, Beth toured an original musical Shine to Rockefeller Foundation 100 Resilient Cities locations to facilitate youth voices in resilience planning and published the book Performance for Resilience: Engaging Youth on Energy and Climate through Music, Movement, and Theatre. Open Source Materials for Shine are available through the Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network. She is As co-founder of SPEAK, Beth recently co-published a curriculum for vocal empowerment for young women’s civic voices that is evidence-based with Dr. Chelsea Hackett and the MAIA Impact School in Guatemala. Beth’s book Theatre for Women’s Participation in Sustainable Development includes her work specific to gender equity in Panama, Guatemala, India, Nicaragua, and the Navajo Nation. Her life as the youngest of a family of ten and her mother’s activist work is featured in the award-winning documentary “Mother: Caring for 7 Billion.” Her book, The Shadow Puppet Theatre of Malaysia-A Study of the Wayang Kulit with Performance Scripts and Puppet Designs (2011), is an in-depth study of Malaysian shadow puppet theatre based on research and performance training as a Fulbright Scholar in Malaysia.
Listen on YouTube
As co-founder of the former Mothers Acting Up (2002-2011), Beth toured a program in partnership with Philanthropiece Foundation entitled “the MOTHER tour” to locations around the world to create a global community of mothers moving from concern to action on behalf of their most passionate concerns. The tour included an original one-woman performance, (M)other, and a workshop entitled Empowering Mother Voices. In conjunction with this program, Beth developed a methodology specific to gender equity in clean energy development using theatre as a tool to include the voices of the women living in poverty in the planning and implementation of development projects in Panama, Guatemala, India, Nicaragua, Namibia, and the Navajo Nation. She presented this work at the World Renewable Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi in 2010, the World Renewable Energy Forum in Denver in 2012, and the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio in 2012.
Listen on Captivate
Beth lives in Boulder, Colorado, with her life partner and husband, JP, with whom she has raised three children, Peter, Melisande, and Lerato. Each of them has contributed significantly to what she has been able to create.
Recommended Readings & Media- Shine – Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network
- https://cleanet.org/resources/56028.html
- Performance for Resilience: Engaging Youth on Energy and Climate through Music, Movement and Theatre, by Beth Osnes
- https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-67289-2
- Theatre for Women's Participation in Sustainable Development, by Beth Osnes
- https://www.routledge.com/Theatre-for-Womens-Participation-in-Sustainable-Development/Osnes/p/book/9781138189669?srsltid=AfmBOooWGexxmVM2XZcDdpOdyyz1VNSkqHuJgmYjoI8fSqe-LgnVy-Fx
- The Shadow Puppet Theatre of Malaysia: A Study of Wayang Kulit with Performance Scripts and Puppet Designs, by Beth Osnes
- https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/the-shadow-puppet-theatre-of-malaysia/
- Mother: Caring for 7 Billion (2011)
- https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/mother-caring-for-7-billion-2011/
- The Motherhood Movement
- https://mommuseum.org/motherhood-movement-film/
- (M)other
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gYIX6fIW1E
- Empowering Mother Voices
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3OSHfYoaG0
- Local Acts: Community-Based Performance in the United States, by Jan Cohen-Cruz
- https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/local-acts/9780813535500
- SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education
- https://www.colorado.edu/center/spike/
- Inside the Greenhouse
- https://insidethegreenhouse.org
- SPEAK: Vocal Empowerment for Young Women and Girls
- https://speak.world
Credits
This episode was researched by Lydia Montgomery and edited by Sarah Westrich, with additional editing by Isabella Fleming, Amy Cavanaugh, Arthur Koenig, Kate Fair, and Marta Kondratiuk. Music is by Daniel Rodríguez Vivas. Mixing is by Morgan Honaker.
-----------
Subscribe at https://www.johnfiege.earth/