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Jessica Wallenfels

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This article is about the American actress and choreographer. For the town in Germany, see Wallenfels.
Jessica Wallenfels
Born
Tacoma, Washington, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materCalifornia 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.

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

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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

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Twin Peaks

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Early projects

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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

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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

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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

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  • Winner (four times): Drammy Award - Outstanding Choreography (shares the 2014-2015 Drammy with Coho Production)[22]
  • Winner: PAMTA Award for Outstanding Choreography[37]
  • Nominee: The Richard E. Sherwood Award (nominated by The Center Theatre Group and Gordon Davidson)[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Twin Peaks Brewing Co. Fully Perked (Albert Rosenfield)". www.tpbrewingco.com. Archived from the original on 2021-01-21.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "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. ^ a b 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 (Thesis). doi:10.17615/a47z-ef67.
  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. ^ a b "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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c "Update: PAMTA musical theater awards postponed". June 8, 2020.
  38. ^ "DramaWatch: Goal-oriented theater at Portland Playhouse | Oregon ArtsWatch". September 27, 2019.
  39. ^ Tavares, Elizabeth E. "Everybody by Artists Repertory Theatre (review)". Johns Hopkins University Press. doi:10.1353/shb.2019.0042.
  40. ^ "Artists Rep's Everybody is a Satirical Journey Toward the Afterlife". Willamette Week. 28 December 2018.
  41. ^ "November 2018 Onstage". AMERICAN THEATRE. November 5, 2018.
  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. ^ a b "Jessica Wallenfels theatre profile". www.abouttheartists.com. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  45. ^ "Jessica Wallenfels". Artists Repertory Theatre. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  46. ^ "Coho Summerfest Part 2 Jessica, Philip, and Susan". Artslandia. 2018-07-02. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  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.
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