Beliza Torres Narváez is an artist/scholar/educator and an Assistant Professor of the Theater Department at Augsburg University. She was a resident and touring artist of the Bread and Puppet Theatre (Vermont) for a year, where she learned making and performing with masks and puppets. In Ecuador, she completed a two-year intensive actor training program with internationally renowned Teatro Malayerba. In Puerto Rico, she was the director of Teatro Camagua, a group that worked with children and teens in underserved communities using theatre as a social justice tool. She also was a teaching artist working with teens in rural and inner city public schools and training teachers on how to integrate theatre into the regular curriculum. In Texas, she worked as a teaching artist with Creative Action, an arts-based youth development organization as part of their after school program.
Besides collaborating with other artists as a performer, Beliza has also developed her original solo performances such as Cuerpo Público (Casa Cruz 04), Y…Pervertida (Teatro Yerbabruja 06), Doña Ana no está aquí (Teatro Yerbabruja 07), Counting my lunares (University of Texas 2008), Sexy Picnic (PSI 13), Hi…perverted (Patrick’s Cabaret Latinx-Q 18). and Resabios the Amargura or that bitter cabaret (Teatro del Pueblo 20). Her credits as a director include: Rudy Ramírez Footnotes for People who don’t Speak Spanish (Vortex Theatre 2011) is Karina Casiano’s Silence is Health (Augsburg University, 16; Nobel Peace Prize Forum, 17), Javier Murillo’s solo performance Broken English Mother Tongue (Minneapolis Fringe, NYC Fringe, 18; Teatro del Pueblo, 20)) and Arístidez Vargas Pluma and the Tempest (Augsburg University, 19). She was also an Arts Organizing Institute Fellow (Pangea World Theatre 17), a guest director of Lake Street Story Circles Project (Pangea 19), and guest artists of the National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation (Pangea and Art2Action 19).
At Augsburg, she was also Sabo Community Engagement Fellow (2016-17) and a Center for Teaching and Learning Fellow (2018-20). And she is the recipient of the 2020 Distinguished Contribution Award for Teaching.
Education
- B.A. in Spanish Studies and Drama, Universidad de Puerto Rico
- M.A. in Performance Studies, New York University.
- Ph.D. in Performance as Public Practice, University of Texas
Course Taught in Higher Education
Acting for Non-Majors, Movement, Directing, Applied Theatre, Latinx Theatre and Performance, Theatre in Communities, Dramatic Activities for Teachers, Theater Teachers Seminar, Arts and Social Change in Puerto Rico, African American Cultural Expressions, Introduction to Theatre, and Theatre Histories.
Areas of Research
- Women and Gender Studies
- Cultural Expressions of the African Diaspora
- Latinx Studies
- Decolonizing Pedagogies
- Theatre of the Oppressed