List of Courses (sample)

Playwriting
Through writing exercises based on dreams, visual images, poetry, social issues, found text, and music, each writer is encouraged to find their own unique language, style, and vision. A group project will explore the nature of collaborative work. Students learn elements of playwriting through writing a short-form play, reading assignments, and class discussions. I have taught playwriting classes and workshops since 2017 at institutions such as the Irish Arts Center, Pace University, and I was invited to teach this class at Bard College during the Spring 2023 semester based on the success of Radical Evolution’s artistic residencies and the positive responses from students. Click here for a sample syllabus.

Click here to view a sample assignment: Character Bios

Latine Theatre: History and Performance Theory
This course examines Latine theatre and performance in the United States from the mid-twentieth century to the present. The principal goal is to explore how diverse national backgrounds, languages, racial and ethnic differences, and gender identities — among other influences — are enacted within the concept of Latinidad in the United States. Students read plays and experience performances from both the historical and emerging Latine canon. These are analyzed through a framework that uses a variety of sources to integrate and understand the complexities of the US Latine community. Through work with their classmates, students explore performance techniques and skills unique to Latine theatre and utilize their creative talents to examine ethnic identities as they are expressed by themselves and the world around them. Click here for a sample syllabus.

Click here to view a sample assignment:  Actos/La Victima - Creative Response

Protest/Activist Theatre: History and Performance Theory
Throughout history, artists and their works have been critical to social, political, and cultural revolutions both big and small. Students study historical, social, and artistic movements of dissent and connect them directly with today’s political, creative, and revolutionary forces. This course is a participatory, performance-based study on the aesthetics and practices theatremakers engage in when creating art aligned with direct actions, protests, organizing, and more. Students explore historical models by artists and organizations such as El Teatro Campesino, the Belarus Free Theatre, Jana Natya Manch, Bread and Puppet Theatre, and more. They will utilize a variety of methods and strategies to develop a framework for political analysis, connecting their artistic craft to existing movements that matter to them. Click here for a sample syllabus.

Introduction to Anti-Racism: Theory and Practice
This course serves as an introduction to understanding race, racism, and its impact on societies, cultures, and individuals. Through the study of a wide variety of significant literature and voices in anti-racist pedagogy, students investigate how race and ethnicity are major ideological and experiential frameworks that inform every aspect of human experience — from the formation of the individual to the organization of diverse societies. By the end of the semester, successful students are able to discuss the constructions of race, racism, and the systems upholding these structures, and they will also be able to identify how these constructions manifest in society. Click here for a sample syllabus.

For a complete list of courses taught, refer to Beto O’Byrne’s CV.

Mentoring

As an artist whose training originates in the communal space of Chicano theatre, I am a strong believer in sharing and passing on knowledge using a one-on-one methodology. For much of the history of Mexican American drama, my community’s work was only shared between its maestres and individual practitioners. I proudly continue this tradition with aspiring artists across the country, sharing my expertise in creative writing, nonprofit organizing, theatremaking, devising and ensemble craft, and more.

This mentorship offers formal and informal experiences, including conversations, meetups, and script feedback, as well as other opportunities. For example, in Fall 2022, I mentored a young playwright through Pace Unversity’s Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Pace Storytelling Fellowship for Equity and Inclusion. In addition to career and artistic advisement, the student received hands-on experience by attending rehearsals and workshops for my creative projects. They also attended events with me that allowed them the chance to meet prominent artists and network for future possibilities.

Additionally, through my consultation business, 3Hands Creative and Consulting Services, I provide monthly pro bono hours to students and young aspiring theatremakers who are navigating their creative fields for the first time.

Community Engagement

Educational spaces come in all shapes and sizes, and as an experienced educator, I recognize the necessity of educating in non-traditional and/or sanctioned spaces. I have engaged in education and training opportunities in a wide range of rooms and spaces and for many organizations beyond traditional academic institutions. I have participated in a variety of workshops for artists of all levels, specializing in experiences to support their careers, helping them craft personal narratives, tell necessary stories, and understand a variety of storytelling structures and modes.

Most notably, I have a five-year training relationship with the Irish Arts Center. I have had the opportunity to teach community-based playwriting classes for intergenerational rooms, oftentimes with writers ranging from their early twenties to well past retirement age. 

In addition to my teaching engagement, I have served and supported the larger Latine theatre community by supporting the Latinx Theatre Commons as a steering committee member for five years. I have also served the larger arts field on numerous grant panels, including local panels such as the Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers Group and the Houston Arts Alliance, and larger national awards such as the MAPfund, and the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures.