Osburn takes seriously what he imparts to his students, colleagues, and readers, that an active and varied involvement in the arts benefits both life and work, opening a space in which skills, insights, and human relations are acquired, exercised, and renewed.
His pursuits have reflected an interest in the Spanish speaking cultures of Europe and the Americas, including Spanish-to-English supertitling and translation. He acted in a Spanish language production of Los tiros and Los ambiciosos, by Carlos Arniches, as part of a course in the theater of Spain at Instituto Cervantes in 2007. Argentine tango is a field of expertise, including a 2018 theater residency with Tangolandó at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia.
He appears as a ’40s partygoer in Cèlia Novis’s Once Upon a Place (Somiant Productions, 2021), an audience performer in Noemie LaFrance’s Choreography for Audience – Take One (Sens Productions, 2012), and God in Kevin Stocklin’s Eve (Second Act Films, 2011). The Shakespeare’s Birthday Sonnet Slam at the Central Park Bandshell, filmed annually by Willful Pictures, counted him as a regular from 2011-2019 (watch: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2011).
In Denver, he was active in Colorado Dramatists, organizing readings and workshops. At the Denver Center Theatre Company, he interned in literary management, was a writer/editor for Stage/Space, the subscriber magazine, and dramaturg for two plays in a local history series. Working in the outreach office, he led tours, visited schools, taught a class in Writing About the Theatre, and edited Prologue, a study guide to the repertory.
In 1996, he directed the first English translation, by Susan Jonas, of Marivaux’s The Surprise of Love for World Stage Productions in Paonia, Colorado. Previous Colorado credits included directing for Hunger Artists, the Changing Scene, Metropolitan Theater, and Fox Arts Center in Denver, collaborating on a dance-theater piece at Community Dance Collective in Boulder, and playing Drosselmeyer in Boulder Ballet Ensemble’s Nutcracker. He road managed a council-funded tour of Colorado by variety artist Janet Rayor and booked a tour of Quilters for the Denver Center Theatre Company.
In Salt Lake City, he was Co-Artistic Director of the New Shakespeare Players, active in university and other theater, and publicist for the city arts council.