Company
Carla Nell
Co-Artistic Director
Board Executive
Carla Nell is the Artistic Director of InnerMission Productions with over 18 years of experience acting and directing in the San Diego theatre community. She is an SDSU graduate with a BA in Theatre Arts. At SDSU, she directed and co-produced the campus's premier production of The Vagina Monologues. Now in its thirteenth year, the community campaign has raised more than $120,000 for local charities working to end violence against women. In 2005 Carla was featured in the KPBS special documentary: Trial by Fire, The Making of a Theatre Professional. Locally she has produced and directed First Love at St. Cecilias Playhouse (InnerMission's San Diego Premiere Production), Nest. Premiere by local playwright George Soete, Swimming in the Shallows San Diego Premiere, Dancing at Lughnasa at Onstage Playhouse and assistant directed Hold Please at The Old Globe Theatre. Recent directing credits include co-producing and co-directing the San Diego premiere of No Child by Nilaja Sun with Mesa College Theatre Department, The World Premiere of Persuasion written by Jane Austen and adapted by Jon Jory at Onstage Playhouse, and The Coffee Shop Chronicles performed at The Big Kitchen in association with New Play Cafe. Acting credits include the critically acclaimed Fat Pig co-produced by Onstage Playhouse, Dear Harvey written by Patricia Loughrey at Diversionary Theatre and in Terminator 4 as part of The Coffee Shop Chronicles. Carla is a member of the Pasadena Playhouse Directors Lab West, she has participated in The Native Voices playwrights retreat and festival of new plays and has studied acting at The American Conservatory Theatre.
Kathi Copeland
Company Member
Kathi Copeland is so proud to be a part of this company. Acting and directing credits include: Precious Little (Innermission/Craig Noel Nominee Best Supporting Actress 2015); That 24 Hour Thing (Fringe 2016 director); Car Plays (La Jolla Playhouse/Moving Arts); That 24 Hour Thing (San Diego Fringe 2015); Kin (Ion Theatre); To Kill A Mockingbird (New Village Arts); San Diego I Love You 2.0 and Warrior’s Duet (Circle Circle dot dot); Community Voices (The Old Globe), American Idyll (Playwright’s Project); Swimming in the Shallows (InnerMission). Los Angeles: Bukowsical (Sacred Fools/New York Fringe Best Musical), Clockwork Orange (Ark LA). Chicago: Night of the Iguana (The Goodman Theatre); Balm in Gilead (Steppenwolf).
Jennie Olson Six
Company Member
Jennie Olson Six is an actor, writer and proud company member of InnerMission Productions. Her play Welcome Home received a workshop production at New Village Arts with Playwrights Project; Rebecca's Last Day was 2nd place winner of Scripteasers Short Play Contest, and The Writer was a Semi-Finalist in 10 by 10 Festival ArtsCenter Stage N.C. and was part of the devised theatre project Blackout with Opehqueh Theatre. Credits with InnerMission include No Child and A Memory, a Monologue, A Rant & A Prayer. Elsewhere: Calendar Girls, Persuasion, Hamlet, Hot L Baltimore. She can also be seen in local commercials.
Jennie received her B.A. in Theatre Arts from UC San Diego and teaches yoga when she's not creating art.
Company Member
Wendy Savage
Wendy Savage is proud to be a part of InnerMission Productions. She first worked with Carla Nell in 2001 when Carla directed Christopher Durang's The Marriage of Bette & Boo. Since then she has had the pleasure of being a part InnerMission's productions of The Taming of the Shrew, The Vagina Monologues for multiple years as well as A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant & a Prayer. Her favorite role was Sally in Dog Sees God, directed by Kym Pappas. Wendy studied theatre at NYU and has been seen on stages in the Bay Area, New York, Seattle and San Diego.
Company Member
Robert Malave
Robert Malave thinks InnerMission Productions is super duper. He first worked with InnerMission in No Child... as Brian (2012). Robert is an artist. His training covers a wide range of mediums from fine art to performance to other stuff. According to Robert, "Art in each form intrinsically supports the others attributing to their respective and collective progress and ability to produce a catharsis." Robert's previous credits include: Circle Circle Dot Dot's The Best Goodbye as Cease;
InnerMission's Disappearing Act as Kick and Seminar (Craig Noel Nominee for Outstanding Ensemble) as Douglas;
Patio Playhouse's Young Frankenstein as Victor von Frankenstein; Vagabond's Othello as Roderigo; MCTC's Why Torture is Wrong as Zamir and The Importance of Being Earnest as Lane. Robert is a graduate of the Mesa College Theater Company and currently works as a theatrical technician for J-Company youth theater.
Company Member
Jyl Kaneshiro
Jyl Kaneshiro is a atingle to be a part of something where their structure is unbreakable, their work empowering and where diversity is not singular. She has worked in several theatres in San Diego and is a co-founder of Asian American Repertory Theatre. Jyl is represented by Shamon Freitas and FSE and she is a member of Actors Equity. She is also a Samurai.
Carla Nell
Co-Artistic Director
Board Executive
Kym Pappas
Kym Pappas is the Co-Artistic Director of InnerMission Productions. She developed the Charles K. Nichols Internship Program at OnStage Playhouse and has served as its director since 2006. Directing credits include Well (Diversionary Theatre), The Kid Thing (Moxie Theatre), Fat Pig, The Vagina Monologues, Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A Prayer, The Diary of Anne Frank, The MENding Monologues, No Child… (Co-directed w/ Carla Nell), and The Coffee Shop Chronicles (InnerMission). Kym currently serves as a teaching artist, running the C.R.A.S.H theatre program at High Tech High Chula Vista and volunteering with teens at the Toussaint Academy. She directed and developed an original theatre piece, ONE with the L.E.T Youth Crew and the San Diego Domestic Violence Council for their annual HOPE in the Park event (2010). Kym was the recipient of the 2011 Jim Payton Spirit of Community Award. She is a member of the Pasadena Playhouse Directors Lab West and she studied at the American Conservatory Theatre. Visit Kym at her website!
Board President/Chair
Laura Preble
Laura Preble is a San Diego author and actor. Local productions include Big Kitchen: The Musical and Disclosure (San Diego International Fringe Festival), Six Women With Brain Death (San Diego Rep), The Diary of Anne Frank (Onstage Productions), The Vagina Monologues (InnerMission Productions) and La Pastorela (Teatro Mascara Magica). Her most recent novel, Out, has been nominated for a San Diego Book Award.
Company Member
Justine Hince
Justine Hince hails from the San Francisco area and moved to sunny San Diego to attend UC San Diego. She graduated with a BA in Theatre and minors in French Language Studies and European Studies. During her third year, she whisked away to England for a year abroad at the University of Birmingham. Since graduating from university, Justine has had the pleasure of working with some amazing theaters & companies in San Diego. She first worked with InnerMission Productions in
No Child… where she played Ms. Tam, one of her favorite roles to date! She also had the pleasure of performing in InnerMission’s annual production of The Vagina Monologues in 2013 and was honored to direct the 2015 production. Some of Justine’s other favorite roles include Cinderella in the San Diego premiere of Disenchanted!, Marcy Park in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Mrs. Clay in the world premiere production of Persuasion at OnStage Playhouse, Yerma in Yerma with Chronos Theatre Group, Georgina in Hoop Girls with Amigos del Rep at the San Diego REP, and Sissy in A Piece of My Heart at UC San Diego. With the encouragement and coaching of her mentors, Carla Nell and Kym Pappas, Justine is ecstatic to be pursuing her MFA in Physical Theatre at the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy!
Volunteer Coordinator
Patrick Mayuyu
Patrick Mayuyu is an actor, singer, dancer, writer and choreographer. He has been seen on several stages around town including San Diego REP, Diversionary, ion, Coronado Playhouse, SD Asian-American Rep and OnStage Playhouse. For InnerMission, Patrick's credits include No Child... and the San Diego International Fringe Festival award-winning MENding Monologues, which he's been a part of as a writer and performer ever since its San Diego premiere in 2009.
Alanna Serrano
Company Member
Alanna is so excited and proud to be a company member of InnerMission Productions. She got her start in theatre as a child by writing, directing and performing original plays with her cousins for her family (for a fee, of course). Acting credits include: Falling, The Vagina Monologues (InnerMission); WoW Festival 2015; Words, Words, Words, Variations on the Death of Trotsky, Why Torture is Wrong and the People Who Love Them (Mesa College) Costume design credits include: Revolt. She said. Revolt again., Falling, Seminar, Taming of the Shrew, Gidion’s Knot (InnerMission)
Company Member
Joel Castellaw
Joel Castellaw is an actor and educator. He studies acting at the Meisner/Chekhov Integrated Training Studio in San Diego, where he completed the studio’s two-year comprehensive program. He has appeared locally in productions at Scripps Ranch Theatre, Intrepid Theatre, the San Diego Fringe Festival, and InnerMission Productions, where he has also served as dramaturg. Favorite roles include God Almighty with the New Play Café and Baptista Minola in Taming of the Shrew with InnerMission. He is a professor of Communication at Grossmont College in El Cajon, where he teaches a course in Readers Theatre. He is currently enrolled in the M.A. program in Theatre Arts at San Diego State University, where his research focus includes dramaturgy, the process of theatrical adaptation, and Shakespearean theatre. He is delighted to be involved as a company member at InnerMission Productions, where he finds a strong spirit of artistic collaboration and broad opportunities to pursue diverse aspects of theatre production.
