Beth Reeves

Adjunct Professor of Theatre Arts 

Beth Reeves is a professional teaching artist/actor/director who is a graduate of Columbus State University Department of Theatre and Dance, where she received her M.Ed. in Theatre Education. She teaches African-American Theatre Performance and Socially Responsible Theatre (Theatre for Social Justice) for her alma mater. Beth has worked with Dalton Little Theatre, The Creative Arts Guild, Georgia Thespian Conference, Speak with Purpose (Seattle, Washington), The Springer Opera House, Fountain City Poetry Slam, Alabama Educational Theatre Association among other arts organizations throughout the years. She has also worked with after school programming such as Girls Inc. of Columbus and Phenix City, Child Youth Service (Fort Benning) and Empowered Youth of Columbus. She has worked with New Horizons Behavioral Health to develop programming for young people using techniques of West African Storytelling as a form of catharsis.

Beth also collaborated with Project Change Clubhouse and immersed the pedagogy of Theatre of the Oppressed and African storytelling techniques as a paradigm for curriculum development for young adults dealing with substance abuse issues. Recently, she completed a residency with the Boys and Girls Club of Chattahoochee Valley titled “Black Excellence: Acting with Afrofuturism”in order to devise a film on how the past is just as important as the future.

She also has experience collaborating with teachers (K-12) in Columbus, Georgia on how to apply arts integration into their curriculum. As a teaching artist, this assists teachers how to use an art form as a way of alternative learning- holding the art form and the content to the same rigor. By doing this, students were also able to develop empathy and self-discipline.

As an actor, Beth has performed in countless roles including some of her favorites: Rose in Fences, Calpurnia in To Kill a Mockingbird, Amanda Wingfield in Pretty Trap, Ruth Younger in A Raisin in the Sun, and Lady of the Lake in Spamalot. Beth has directed productions for Dalton Little Theater , Columbus State University, and the Springer Opera House. Recently, she made history as she directed an all African-American cast of Steel Magnolias (emphasizing and celebrating black aesthetics of natural hair).

Beth will direct Look Forward: The Ruby Bridges Story at the Springer Opera House this fall. Completing an artist-in-residency with South Columbus Elementary School in 2020, she used art strategies as a process for students to comprehend, empathize, and express the meaning of Ruby Bridges' tenacity to students in kindergarten and fifth grades. She will also direct the musical Last Stop on Market Street for Columbus State University January of 2023.

www.bethreevesartist.com