Jessica Wallenfels

Last updated
Jessica Wallenfels
Born
Tacoma, Washington, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater California Institute of the Arts
Occupations
  • Actress
  • choreographer
  • movement and theatre director
  • graphic designer

Jessica Wallenfels (sometimes credited as "Jessica Wallenfells") is an American actress, choreographer, movement and theatre director, and graphic designer, notable for her early cult roles in Twin Peaks and the movie Dogfight , along with her later work as a choreographer, director, and stage actress.

Contents

Born in Tacoma, Washington, she lived in Los Angeles for many years, and is now artistic director of a non-profit organization in Portland, Oregon called Many Hats Collaboration as well as continuing to work on stage productions and media projects. [1] [2]

Early life

Since the age of 12, Jessica was a dancer and choreographer with her local dance school in Tacoma, and later a Little Red Riding Hood costume character at Never Never Land Amusement Park in Tacoma. She moved to Los Angeles in 1997 to attend California Institute of the Arts. [3]

Acting roles

Twin Peaks

While still in Washington and in her early teens, she landed a role as an actress working with David Lynch on Twin Peaks (1990). [4] She played Harriet Hayward, the little sister of Lara Flynn Boyle's character, Donna Hayward, and older sister of Gersten Hayward, played by Alicia Witt. [5] She appeared in the acclaimed Pilot Episode [6] [7] and Episode 8, [8] the second-season premiere, both feature-length episodes directed by Lynch. In both appearances, her character Harriet reads poetry she has written, one about the show's iconic character, Laura Palmer. [9] [10] [11] [12]

Entertainment Weekly picked her role as one of "The 30 Best Things About the Twin Peaks Pilot". [5]

Other roles

She also appeared in Nancy Savoca's Dogfight (1991), an episode of The Tom Show , and in the movies Born to Love You (1999) and String Theory (2004). [1] [13]

Stage Roles

Among her stage roles, she played Ismene in Antigone. Tertiary. Sexxx. at the Oasis Theatre Company in Los Angeles in 2001, which The LA Times called "tasty.... though not for all tastes". [14] [15]

Media work

In the late 90s, she was a production artist and news reporter for UltimateTV, now Zap2it, and wrote freelance interviews with celebrities for Tribune Media Services's now defunct website TV Quest and various newspaper articles about pop culture. [1] [2] She worked as a graphic designer, designing the Readbooks 2000 website for Hyperion Publishing, plus additional websites for Disney/Hyperion properties, including: Dinosaur, L.A.F., Jump at the Sun, The Cheetah Girls. She also worked with Go.com to promote Disney Books. [2]

Theatre

Early projects

After moving to LA, she joined Theatre of NOTE after moving there in the late 90s, where her work included choreography for Eden. NOTE was also the development home and venue for her original movement work, Soul Geek. [2] [16]

In 1998, she choreographed movement for Chay Yew's play A Beautiful Country at the Mark Taper Forum. [17] [18] [19]

She choreographed Cornerstone Theatre's "Magic Trix" (Critic's Choice, Backstage West), was named an Associate Artist with CTC, and worked on the award-winning "Broken Hearts - A BH Mystery" (Backstage West Garland), [20] and also choreographed an adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing in Los Angeles. [21]

She conceived, choreographed, directed, and performed in the original movement work Losing It at Glaxa Studios for producer Anthony Byrnes from Mark Taper Forum. [22] [23]

The New York Times mentioned some of her early projects, including a multimedia piece called Bling, part of The New American Living Room festival, saying it "examined black and white consumerism", and The Bridge, a dance-theatre series. [24] [25]

Later projects

In 2010, she staged a production in Portland of "Find Me Beside You", a rock opera ballet of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. [26]

In 2017, she directed "Appropriate”, a play about racism and white privilege written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, as her MFA project at the University of Portland. [27] [28] [29]

She debuted “The Undertaking”, an original work, in 2019. [1] [30]

In 2020, she was movement director on Charles Grant's Matter (aka Matter 2.0) (2020), a theatre piece and short video inspired by Black Lives Matter, at the Portland Playhouse. [31] [32] [33] [34]

Other work includes Win the War or Tell Me a Story, [35] “Into the Woods” (Broadway Rose), and “The Wolves” [36] (Portland Playhouse). [37] [38]

She co-directed “Everybody” (Artists Repertory Theatre) [39] [40] and the musical “Scarlet” at Portland Playhouse. At Oregon Children's Theatre, she directed “Ella Enchanted”, “Dragons Love Tacos,” and “Pete the Cat”. [41] [42]

She was a choreographer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. [43] Regional choreography includes several Shakespeare plays there, “Dancing at Lughnasa” at Seattle Repertory Theatre, original pieces at HERE Arts Center [44] and many more in New York, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and "Ainadamar" (Tanglewood Music Center). [37] [44] [45]

She has launched work at CoHo Summerfest and intergenerational queer programs. [46] [47]

Education and teaching

Wallenfels has a BFA in Acting from California Institute of the Arts and an MFA from University of Portland. She also attended Dell’Arte International. [1]

She created choreography for productions at Willamette University, Lewis & Clark College, Portland State, and Portland Community College. She directed at Pacific University and Western Oregon University, including Why Cross Chaos at the WOU Theatre (Spring 2018). [48] She taught movement and acting at School of the Arts (California State) between 2011 and 2018. [2]

She has been adjunct faculty at Mt. Hood Community College, University of Portland, and Portland State University. She taught the Portland Playhouse apprentices, worked as an instructor for Dance for Parkinson's in Oregon and - since 2013 - taught for Staged! Conservatory. [17] [49]

Awards and nominations

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gates McFadden</span> American actress and choreographer

Cheryl Gates McFadden is an American actress and choreographer. She is usually credited as Cheryl McFadden when working as a choreographer and Gates McFadden when working as an actress. She played Dr. Beverly Crusher in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, its four subsequent films and the sequel series Star Trek: Picard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agnes de Mille</span> American dancer and choreographer (1905–1993)

Agnes George de Mille was an American dancer and choreographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alvin Ailey</span> American dancer and activist (1931–1989)

Alvin Ailey Jr. was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Alvin Ailey American Dance Center as havens for nurturing Black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Sokolow</span> American dance artist (1910–2000)

Anna Sokolow was an American dancer and choreographer. Sokolow's work is known for its social justice focus and theatricality. Throughout her career, Sokolow supported of the development of modern dance around the world, including in Mexico and Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debbie Allen</span> American actress (born 1950)

Deborah Kaye Allen is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, singer-songwriter, director, producer, and a former member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. She has been nominated 20 times for an Emmy Award, two Tony Awards, and has also won a Golden Globe Award and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Stroman</span> American theatre director

Susan P. Stroman is an American theatre director, choreographer, film director and performer. Her notable theater productions include Oklahoma!, The Music Man, Crazy for You, Contact, The Producers, The Frogs, The Scottsboro Boys, Bullets Over Broadway, POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, and New York, New York.

Kathleen Marshall is an American director, choreographer, and creative consultant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mia Michaels</span> American choreographer and judge

Mia Michaels Melchiona is an American choreographer and judge on the television show So You Think You Can Dance. She has worked with Tom Cruise, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Madonna, Ricky Martin, Prince, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. In 2005 she choreographed Cirque du Soleil's world tour Delirium and Celine Dion's A New Day..., for which she received an Emmy Award nomination. In 2007 she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography for her routine on "Calling You" during season two of So You Think You Can Dance. She won another Emmy Award during season five in 2010. She was a judge during season 7 with Adam Shankman and Nigel Lythgoe. She choreographed the dance sequence for "Get Happy" in the episode "Bombshells" of the television series House.

Jeff Calhoun is an American director, choreographer, producer and dancer.

Deborah Hay is an American choreographer, dancer, dance theorist, and author working in the field of experimental postmodern dance. She is one of the original founders of the Judson Dance Theater. Hay's signature slow and minimal dance style was informed by a trip to Japan while touring with Merce Cunningham's company in 1964. In Japan she encountered Noh theatre and soon incorporated nô's extreme slowness, minimalism and suspension into her post-Cunningham choreography. Sometimes she also imposed stressful conditions on the dancers, as with her "Solo" group dance that was presentation at 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering.

Samantha Jo "Mandy" Moore is an American choreographer, dancer, producer, and dance instructor. She is known for her work on the United States reality television series So You Think You Can Dance, having appeared on the show every year since the third season, and Dancing with the Stars. She choreographed the 2016 film La La Land and has also worked on stage musicals and commercials. She has created dance numbers for the Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Emmy Awards, and Grammy Awards ceremonies. She has been nominated seven times for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography, winning in 2017 for her work on Dancing with the Stars, in 2018 for her work on So You Think You Can Dance, and in 2020 for Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist.

Andy Blankenbuehler is an American dancer, choreographer and director primarily for stage and concerts. He has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Choreography five times, and has won three times: for In the Heights (2008), Hamilton (2016), and Bandstand (2017). Blankenbuehler's other Broadway choreography work includes 9 to 5, Bring it On: The Musical, and the 2016 Cats revival. Blankenbuehler was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor in 2018 for his work on Hamilton. He also choreographed the movie adaptation of Cats. Most recently he choreographed, directed and co-wrote Only Gold - a new musical with Music by Kate Nash at MCC Theater.

Randy Skinner is an American dancer, director and choreographer, primarily for the stage. He has been nominated four times for Tony Awards, three times for Drama Desk Awards, and four times for Outer Critics Circle Awards for choreography.

Sonya Tayeh is a New York City-based choreographer. She has worked nationally and internationally across the worlds of dance and theater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Marie DeAngelo</span>

Ann Marie DeAngelo is an American choreographer, director, producer, teacher, consultant and former dancer - an expert in all areas of dance. She was leading ballerina with the Joffrey Ballet, where early on she was pegged by Time magazine as "one of America's most outstanding ballerinas" and where she later served as associate director at the time of the company's move to Chicago in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcia Milgrom Dodge</span> American director and choreographer

Marcia Milgrom Dodge is an American director, choreographer and stage writer. After working in regional theatre, Dodge directed and choreographed her first Broadway production, a revival of Ragtime in 2009. The production received four Helen Hayes Awards in 2010, including one for Best Director, and received 7 Tony Award nominations including one for Dodge for Best Director of a Musical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Pickett</span> American ballet choreographer

Helen Pickett is an American choreographer for stage and film, and has been described as “one of the few prominent women in ballet today”.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dianne McIntyre</span> American dancer, choreographer and teacher

Dianne McIntyre is an American dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Her notable works include Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Dance Adventure in Southern Blues , an adaptation of Zora Neal Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, as well as productions of why i had to dance,spell #7, and for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, with text by Ntozake Shange. She has won numerous honors for her work including an Emmy nomination, three Bessie Awards, and a Helen Hayes Award. She is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and the Dramatists Guild of America.

Donald Byrd is an American modern dance choreographer, known for themes relating to social justice, and in particular, racism.

Nancy Louise Spanier is an American dancer, choreographer, artistic director, filmmaker and educator. Her body of choreographic works includes pieces commissioned internationally by museums, universities, dance companies and foundations. She is the founder of the Nancy Spanier Dance Theatre of Colorado, a repertory company known for its highly theatrical and imagistic performances that explore themes through the integration of sculpture, props, and film. Spanning her career, she has incorporated a variety of performance genres and has collaborated, among others, with award-winning playwright Jean-Claude van Itallie, and Anaïs Nin, who documented Spanier's performance in her last diary. Spanier is a professor emerita at the University of Colorado, Boulder where she taught dance from 1969 to 2003.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Twin Peaks Brewing Co. Fully Perked (Albert Rosenfield)". www.tpbrewingco.com. Archived from the original on 2021-01-21.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Leadership". Many Hats Collaboration. Archived from the original on 2021-01-14.
  3. ↑ "Jessica Wallenfels: Public relations and marketing specialist; Norris Beggs & Simpson Cos.; Portland". Biz Journals . 2007-08-30. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  4. ↑ Chion, Michel (2019-07-25). David Lynch. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN   978-1-83871-519-9.
  5. 1 2 Franich, Darren; Coggan, Devan (2020-04-08). "'Twin Peaks' turns 30: The 30 best things about the pilot". Entertainment Weekly . Archived from the original on 2021-01-12.
  6. ↑ "In 1990, the Twin Peaks pilot changed everything". TV Club. 28 November 2007.
  7. ↑ Murray, Noel (April 20, 2017). "'Twin Peaks' Season 1, Episode 1: Wrapped in Plastic (Published 2017)". The New York Times.
  8. ↑ Murray, Noel (May 3, 2017). "'Twin Peaks' Season 2, Episode 1: Would You Like to Play With Fire? (Published 2017)". The New York Times.
  9. ↑ Muir, John Kenneth (2013-02-25). Terror Television: American Series, 1970-1999. McFarland. ISBN   978-1-4766-0416-9.
  10. ↑ Lavery, David (1995). Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks. Wayne State University Press. ISBN   978-0-8143-2506-3.
  11. ↑ O'Connor, Tom (2008-09-23). "Bourgeois Myth versus Media Poetry in Prime-time: Re-visiting Mark Frost and David Lynch's Twin Peaks". Social Semiotics. 14 (3): 309–333. doi:10.1080/10350330408629682. S2CID   145369643.
  12. ↑ Engel, Adam (March 20, 2019). "Between Two Worlds: The Functions of Liminal Space in Twentieth-Century Literature". College of Arts and Sciences, Department of English and Comparative Literature August 2017– via https://doi.org/10.17615/a47z-ef67.{{cite journal}}: External link in |via= (help)
  13. ↑ "Jessica Wallenfels". IMDb.
  14. ↑ "Modern 'Antigone' Skillfully Riffs on Classic Tragedy". Los Angeles Times. 2001-01-24. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  15. ↑ "24 Jan 2001, Page 129 - The Los Angeles Times at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
  16. ↑ American Theatre. Theatre Communications Group. 2001.
  17. 1 2 "About+Contact". Jessica Wallenfels.
  18. ↑ Yew, Chay (2002). The Hyphenated American: Four Plays. Grove Press. ISBN   978-0-8021-3912-2.
  19. ↑ "Playbill for "A Beautiful Country"" (PDF). cornerstone.pbworks.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 27, 2021. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
  20. ↑ "A Funny, Upbeat Noir". Los Angeles Times. November 26, 1999.
  21. ↑ Martinez, Julio (July 12, 2000). "Much Ado About Nothing".
  22. 1 2 Vondersmith, Jason (29 June 2016). "Bits & Pieces".
  23. ↑ The Best Plays of ... Limelight Editions. 2001. ISBN   9780879109684.
  24. ↑ "CLASSICAL MUSIC AND DANCE GUIDE (Published 2002)". The New York Times. August 16, 2002.
  25. ↑ "Dance Listings (Published 2002)". The New York Times. November 24, 2002.
  26. ↑ Thomas, Catherine (August 7, 2010). "Theater review: 'Find Me Beside You' captures essence of Morrison". oregonlive.
  27. ↑ "Fall play "Appropriate" to address racism and white privilege". The Beacon.
  28. ↑ "'Appropriate' review: all in the family". October 29, 2017.
  29. ↑ Wallenfels, Jessica (2018). Appropriating Realism to Promote Inclusion: Directing Appropriate at University of Portland. University of Portland.
  30. ↑ Cosson, Steven (2009). The Civilians: An Anthology of Six Plays. Playscripts. ISBN   978-0-9819099-0-5.
  31. ↑ "MATTER". 22 August 2020.
  32. ↑ "Charles Grant's Matter at Hand". October 21, 2020.
  33. ↑ "DanceWatch: Linda Austin and Bobby Fouther | Oregon ArtsWatch". November 3, 2020.
  34. ↑ "DanceWatch: Do the social-distance dance | Oregon ArtsWatch". September 1, 2020.
  35. ↑ "DramaWatch Weekly: Summerfest! | Oregon ArtsWatch". June 28, 2018.
  36. ↑ Garver, Krista. "BWW Review: #GirlsRule in THE WOLVES at Portland Playhouse". BroadwayWorld.com.
  37. 1 2 3 "Update: PAMTA musical theater awards postponed". June 8, 2020.
  38. ↑ "DramaWatch: Goal-oriented theater at Portland Playhouse | Oregon ArtsWatch". September 27, 2019.
  39. ↑ https://mla.hcommons.org/deposits/download/hc:32240/CONTENT/tavares-2019.pdf/ [ bare URL PDF ]
  40. ↑ "Artists Rep's Everybody is a Satirical Journey Toward the Afterlife". Willamette Week. 28 December 2018.
  41. ↑ Editors, American Theatre (November 5, 2018). "November 2018 Onstage". AMERICAN THEATRE.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  42. ↑ "Crazy fun with Pete the Cat | Oregon ArtsWatch". January 30, 2018.
  43. ↑ "Guest Artist: Jessica Wallenfels". www.osfashland.org. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  44. 1 2 "Jessica Wallenfels theatre profile". www.abouttheartists.com. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  45. ↑ "Jessica Wallenfels". Artists Repertory Theatre. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  46. ↑ Podcast | 0 | (2018-07-02). "Coho Summerfest Part 2 Jessica, Philip, and Susan". Artslandia. Retrieved 2021-01-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  47. ↑ BWW News Desk. "Kaiser Permanente's Educational Theatre Program Presents Intergenerational Queer Theatre Project". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  48. ↑ "Western Oregon University 2018 Academic Excellence Showcase". Western Oregon University.
  49. ↑ Wallenfels, Jessica (January 29, 2016). "Sampling Locally Grown, Artisanal Theatre at Portland's Fertile Ground". AMERICAN THEATRE.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.