Leadership
Photo by Gary Norman
Jessica Wallenfels, Artistic Director
Artistic Director Jessica Wallenfels (she/her) is a director/choreographer and educator who creates new work that is music and movement-driven, and also works as a freelance director/choreographer and educator. She teaches movement, devising and acting and is currently an adjunct professor at Portland State University.
Original works with Many Hats Collaboration include Great Wide Open, The Snowstorm, Find Me Beside You, Truth and Beauty, Rest Room, Mutt, Stages, and Break, Then Open. 'Snowstorm' was included in Coho Productions’ 2014-2015 season and won the Drammy Award for Outstanding Production. In early 2019, she started the 5 in 5 project with Many Hats, and since then has embarked on seven new works spanning mainstage, video, workshop, and classroom projects, centering BIPOC voices in the majority of projects.
Directorial work includes direction/choreography of The Wolves at Portland Playhouse and Into the Woods for Broadway Rose. She co-directed/choreographed Everybody at Artists Repertory Theatre and Scarlet, a new musical, at Portland Playhouse. She has also directed Dragons Love Tacos, Ella Enchanted and Pete the Cat for Oregon Children’s Theatre. Wallenfels was a choreographer for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for four seasons and six shows. Her choreographic work has also been seen at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Artists Repertory Theatre, and Portland Playhouse. In New York, she collaborated with The Civilians and showed work at La Ma Ma e.t.c., HERE Arts Center, ps 122, WAX, University Settlement, and Culture Project. Los Angeles credits include the Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Old Globe Theater, and The Mark Taper Forum. Other places: Ainadamar at Tanglewood Music Center. Wallenfels provided choreography for three shows in Cornerstone Theatre's BH Cycle including A Beautiful Country by Chay Yew, Magic Trix, adapted by Rickerby Kinds and Broken Hearts: A BH Mystery by Lisa Loomer.
Wallenfels holds an MFA from University of Portland, a BFA in Acting from California Institute of the Arts and attended Dell’Arte International. She is a four-time Drammy Award winner for Outstanding Choreography and a PAMTA Award winner for Outstanding Choreography. More at jessicawallenfels.com.
Beth Thompson, Managing Director
Delighted to call Portland home, Managing Director Beth Thompson (she/they) has collaborated with many local companies as an actor, deviser, teacher and producer. As a producer they have focused on productions that embrace movement storytelling as a primary narrative tool. Productions they have invested their management tools in include Tender Napalm under their personal production moniker Dancing Brain Productions, This Girl Laughs, The Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing, a co-production with CoHo Theatre and four years developing devised theatre pieces with their beloved collaborators at The Forgery Theatre Collective. When not working to produce theatre, Beth devotes their management skills to The People's Yoga, a local yoga studio dedicated to making sure that the healing benefits of yoga are available to everyone in our community.
As a performer favorite roles include Woman in Tender Napalm with Dancing Brain Productions, Orlando in Orlando at Profile Theatre, Miss Julie in Miss Julie and Catherine in Suddenly Last Summer at Shaking the Tree and Bear in The Snowstorm and Daughter in The Undertaking with Many Hats Collaboration.
Beth is so thankful for the work at Many Hats that allows them to be engaged in the process of creation from inception to performance. Beth offers enthusiastic gratitude to Jessica for the friendship, inspiration and colleagueship Jessica has offered since Beth's first Many Hats audition in 2007.
Board of Directors
Jamuna Chiarini
Michael Hammerstrom
Melissa Morley
Diana Schultz
Ann Siqveland
Beth Thompson
Jessica Wallenfels
Many Hats’ mission is to create new works of theater that reimagine music and movement onstage.
Commitment to inclusion
I am a queer, female artist-educator committed to fighting the biases, norms and systemic racism of dominant culture, including white supremacist and patriarchal systems of oppression which are endemic in our society and that require deep reflection, as well as daily action, to eradicate. I acknowledge my own socio-cultural identity as part of the lens through which I communicate.
My antiracist work is best demonstrated by 5 in 5 Initiative. Between 2019-2023 we embarked on seven new works spanning mainstage, video, workshop, and classroom projects, centering BIPOC and underrepresented voices in the majority of projects. This project helped bring these values into focus, and our current work brings these ideals into the future.
In my casting, particularly in educational settings, I am always looking to upend expectations about race, class, gender and ability and advocate for those who haven’t had the privilege of prior opportunities. I recognize gender fluidity as an evolving expression of identity, and its impact on how we will view casting and storytelling going forward.
-Jessica Wallenfels
Photo by Gary Norman
Photo by Gary Norman
Vision and Values
With the belief that arts are vital to life, Many Hats brings people together for shared experiences that foster connection.
We reflect the intersectionality of our changing world through interdisciplinary performance, and create with a spirit of innovation and experimentation.
We seek to expand access to arts experiences for new performers, storytellers and audiences through affordable ticket prices and relevant, compelling stories.
We address critical questions through boundary pushing performance which inspires awe and wonder.
We embrace fantastic theatricality.
We investigate humanness through the body.
Story
Many Hats’ magic has always been in the collision of points of view. Since its inception in 2005 by co-founders Lava Alapai, Annalise Albright and Jessica Wallenfels, this theatre production company has found synergy to be its energizing force.
Today, under artistic director Jessica Wallenfels, a pool of Portland-area artists, and the Many Hats board of directors, we continue to use the collaborative experience of creation as our touchstone to create new work forged from multiple perspectives.
Our first priority is to value the people we work with. We nourish local talent by creating new work which is a unique product of the time and place in which we live. We run rehearsals which honor the talent of the people in the room and design processes that support the potential of the people involved. We pay fair wages to local artists who enhance the cultural life of our city and make Portland what it is. We share our work with the greater Portland area at an affordable price point in accessible venues.
Theater is the study of transformation. Through the conflict of differing perspectives, change is wrought. We believe multiple perspectives are needed more than ever in our rich and dynamic world, and we believe in the principal of group process which underlies the heart of our nation’s governance. Through the act of listening and being present with someone else, we cultivate empathy and awareness of ourselves and our world. Through individual stories told onstage, we see how we are all connected.
