Heather Beasley

Bio

Heather Beasley is a playwright, director, dramaturg and teaching artist. She currently serves as Director of Education at Miners Alley Playhouse, where she designs and manages the company’s education programs for students of all ages. She also writes and directs for the mainstage and theatre for young audiences (TYA) production seasons. At Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado (BETC), she runs the BETC Writers Group, a collaborative of Colorado playwrights developing ten-minute, full-length, and TYA plays.

Heather’s experience in new play development and professional production includes work on ten world premiere productions and dozens of new plays with writers from across the country. She designed the innovative Generations residency program, the first residency program in the country specifically for parent playwrights. Heather created the Science Shorts program, which paired playwrights with environmental science researchers to create an original education event incorporating short plays, science talks and hands-on experiments and creative activities. Her original plays include Bone Records, The Gentle Life-Changing Magic of Burning it All Down to the Ground, and the TYA musical Amelia’s Big Idea (co-written with Richie Cannaday and Edie Carey).

Heather brings her arts administrative experience and artistic creativity into her teaching approach. She loves working with students who are breaking disciplinary boundaries and re-envisioning arts organizations as places to build satisfying lives as well as prominent creative careers. Previously, she taught at the University of Colorado Boulder and for the MFA Performance Program at Naropa University, where she won the 2020 Faculty Involvement Award.

Education

Heather earned a B.A. in Creative Writing/Theatre from Creighton University, an M.A. in Theatre with Dramaturgy focus from Villanova University and a Ph.D. in Theatre from University of Colorado Boulder.