BY Molly Cruse | COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO
Sporting an emerald-green morph suit and carrying a suitcase overflowing with colorful costumes and props, Beth Osnes certainly turned heads as she walked into the Colorado Public Radio newsroom.
Moments after her arrival, Osnes had transformed the newsroom’s largest conference room into a tropical, butterfly oasis. With the tables and chairs pushed to one side, in their place was a human-sized, leaf-shaped rug, laminated placards of a butterfly’s life cycle, and a giant, green hammock in one corner.
A speaker in the middle of the room cemented the transformation by playing a soundtrack complete with bird song, music and the sound of trickling water.
Osnes, who teaches theatre and environmental studies at the University of Colorado of Boulder, is the creator of “The Butterfly Affect,” a guided, interactive performance that lets participants experience the metamorphosis of a butterfly — from egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, to butterfly.