		Along the Path of Larks and Swallows
		`SF FRINGE 2008 AUDIENCE REVIEWS`
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`CLICK TO SEE RECENT AUDIENCE REVIEWS` CLICK ON PLAY FOR REVIEWS OF THAT PLAY 51 & Counting After-party Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Candide, or Optimism (Part I) Crazy Bag Doormen Endless Frontier Evelyn Reese Show Exit Sign: A Rock Opera Exotic Messages FLUID i scan Identity Crisis If You're Going to San Francisco In the Belly of the Whale Iron Muffin,Glass Jungle II It Is What It Is Jew Must Be Crazy Knuckleball Last Exit LATE NIGHTS WITH THE BOYS Lost and Found in the Mission Loving Fathers Madge's Box Marie 21 and Flying Mitch Monkey Poet Moon Fable Mr. P's Big Day Off My Camino My Friend Hitler No Stranger Than Home Number's Up! On Second Thought Open Season - A Queer Performance Showcase Peg-Ass-Us Punchline Single Entendre VS. Comedy! Son of Genderanium Sonderkommando Tale End Taste of Enlightenment Tenderloin Christmas Hustler theatre that Moves There's a Monster in the Well! To Kill For True Theatre Critic Ukulady's Ponyshow!		Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: Marc Tozer 5 Stars Another fringe highlight and a real tour-de-force. Watching Mia steam through this powerful narrative non-stop was truly breathtaking and memorable Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: Turbo 5 Stars Most polished performance of the 10 Fringe pieces I saw. The writing is wonderful ... "i m a tornado seeking a tornado 2 tornado" ... with any risk of cliche turned about into freshness. Mia is not only comfortable on stage, but has the ability to make her audience equally comfortable. It was a great performance, but about 15-20 minutes too long. Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: Xavier K. 5 Stars Paschal combines poetic lyricism with a piercing, uncompromising intelligence, and possesses a stage presence that is both graceful and fierce. Magnificent. Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: Melissa G. 5 Stars Her words and movements are still trickling down my spine. The show was absolutely incredible! Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: Dave O 5 Stars Mia's performance is powerful and intense, her show is packed with metaphor and dense with meaning and subtext. Come to see this moving, thought-provoking and sometimes disturbing one-woman show. Come prepared for an incredible journey as Mia takes you Along the Path... Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: Marti Paschal 5 Stars Yes, I'm her sister - but I think she would agree that I am one of her toughest critics. I saw this play twice in Fresno, at the Marsh Rising, and for the fourth time last Saturday at the Fringe. Each time, Mia's poetry and honesty moved me to tears. This play is beautiful and true. Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: John 5 Stars I saw Along the Path... last saturday evening and still can't get the show out of my mind; the writing and the performance were both exquisite. The subject matter, an exploration of the heart and its yearnings, betrayals, honesty and unreliability could have devolved into a bad self-help monologue in the hands of a less capable writer and performer. However Mia Paschals brings a rare insight, honesty and humor that keeps you engaged from "the bleeding heart" right through to the "boxer on the beach". Highly recommended, 2-thumbs-up,5-stars, pink-guy-standing-on-his-seat-clapping... Michelin stars too if they did this sort of thing. Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: Marc Tognotti 5 Stars I highly recommend Mia Paschal’s “Along the Path of Larks and Swallows.” Mia Paschal performing her own play is a double gift: you get the play, you get Mia. It's an ambitious, meaningful story and a heartfelt personal statement about what it takes to get to love in today’s world. At the beginning the pace is fast and verbally dense, even frenetic — reflecting, I think, the complexity and confusion confronted by a young, troubled heart. As the play moved forward towards its conclusion, though, I experienced the pace transforming ever so subtly, little by little. I think what I was experiencing was how, while Mia’s character learns and grows before our eyes and begins to move more surely and choicefully through her life, we the audience experience her world expanding in feeling and quality. I think this is part of what makes the ending seem all the more convincing and special, the arrival at a deeper level of awareness and a greater sense of strength than she started with. I f! igure it must have taken a lot of love for Mia Paschal to write a play like this. Mia gives a lot of love in performing it. In following Mia’s journey toward love I found myself reflecting on my own and felt moved, inspired and connected to Mia’s quest. Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: Emily 5 Stars Mia Paschal's examination of the chaotic path that leads us in and out of love is ferocious and eloquent. Her writing is stunning in it's originality and the power of it's imagery. A truly riveting performance. Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: Marianna Klebanov 5 Stars This was a very beautifully written performance. The humanity of the writing and the performance is very moving. Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: Victoria 4 Stars A very dynamic piece and Mia is exceptionally passionate in her delivery. One man/woman shows are not usually my cup of tea, but the dialogue she has written is beautiful and poetic full of things to think about after you've left the theatre. Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: SFTheatreBear There is no doubt that Mia is an exquisite artist. What is puzzling is the need to put so many reviews from Fresno to generate interest. This section is for reviews of the SF Fringe performance. Not Fresno. Or anywhere else. The overwhelming number of Fresno reviews and articles speaks of a level of hyper self-promotion that goes beyond the fair-game nature of this review section designed for SF Fringe performances and audiences. In my decade or so of going to the SF Fringe, I don't recall any show getting this high of praise unless it was done by friends (sometimes writing multiple reviews under separate names). This seems disingenuous. I still recommending seeing her. She's compelling and magnetic... a true performing force to be reckoned with. She won the "Best of SF Fringe" award twice for very good reason. Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: David 5 Stars While I think the Saturday evening performance I attended might have been the first one, the piece felt unbelievably polished. There must be more words flowing through this incredibly packed hour that in any other festival production, but the confidence, clarity, drive, and pace never flagged. She's incredibly beautiful, open, insightful, and gifted. The lighting needs to catch up with her - particularly when she engages the audience in extreme close-up - but that's a minor quibble. Wonderful. Play: along the path of larks and swallows Reviewer: john 5 Stars Love. Everything was said about it ? I don't think so. It's a beautiful play, and original. Interpretation was great, intense and the text is so poetic. You should run to see it ! Play: Along the path of larks and swallows Reviewer: Abby Schachner 5 Stars Mia is gorgeous, so so very talented... so poetic... I wanted to stevie wonderize my head to her words. The lighting and the beautiful heart that I saw on the stage (both literally and figuratively)... well, I'm a fan. Very inspiring. Mia is timeless. Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: Renee Newlove 5 Stars This show is a must see. The power behind Paschal's words will move you, regardless the status of your own love life. The imagry Paschal paints welcomes even the most weary. I highly recommend seeing "Along the Path of Larks and Swallows"! You should come along and see if YOU are a tornado! Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: Yvonne Chunn 5 Stars I was fortunate to see this play at the Fresno Fringe Festival and recently at The Marsh Rising. Beautifully written and performed, Along the Path of Larks and Swallows is a play that I highly recommend. Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: pc munoz 5 Stars The beautiful Mia Paschal is a marvel in her new piece, which begins with a scream. Soul-baring, confrontational, sharply constructed, and thoroughly compelling. Go see it! Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: E. Field 5 Stars (I know, I know, -what do they know in Fresno...?) -Actually, for this displaced NewYorker?, if it's Mia's show (which we had the honor of experiencing at Rogue this spring,) we know a lot. We know all we need to know, had every last nerve ending, feeling, passion, and attention coaxed, scorched, soothed, and held like pearls on a small gold chain that lay against her skin. I could say 'I don't now how she did it, (how it was better than last years(and the Lily was: Fontana)' -But it's Mia, all her life, all of ours, and a year's gone by, and this is what has happend. Such a locomotive of energy, passion, open brokenness, fury, glee, transfiguration and (new for 2008!)LOVE is hard to fathom coming from such an elegant small frame, -but it does, -she does, will not be able to take your eyes off of her, and she will level you. Try to remember to breathe,(you're San Francisco, you can do this, the farm team has every confidence in you.) But be prepared to be hit by one audacious, stunning little train that packs one hell of a whallop. I'd not miss this if I were you. -and if anybody asks?, -tell 'em Fresno sent ya. Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: Donald Munro, Fresno Bee In her solo-performance show "Along the Path of Larks and Swallows", Mia Paschal bursts onto the stage clasping a long, red velvet streamer to her bosom. The implication is clear: We're in for some heartbreak. For those of us who saw Paschal's terrific solo show last year at the Rogue, the question is: Just how dark will this outing be? Last year, Paschal offered up a searing depiction of her repeated attempts to kill herself. A blend of aching realism and abstract digressions, it was a stormy glimpse at a very complicated mind. "Along the Path of Larks and Swallows" is not as dark, although Paschal still brings more than a hint of melancholy to the proceedings. Focusing this time on matters of the heart, she delivers another beautifully written and performed show that might not be as philosophically dizzying as last year's but that still connects on several levels. Whether she's cheerfully delivering crisp aphorisms -- "I've never wanted to be a mother for the same reason I never wanted to be a dictator -- it's just too much work," she says wryly -- or delving into the nitty-gritty of relationships gone bad, Paschal's forceful stage presence can be hypnotic. What I like so very much is the way that she can hone in on little bits of life that all of us experience but never bother to articulate. For example, in one segment of the show, she approximates a crowded nightclub by walking up into the audience, squeezing between two people and talking about how assertive you have to be when ordering at a busy bar. In such a situation, you have to assert yourself by directionally launching your voice -- almost like a guided missile -- so you can pierce through the other noise in the room and catch the attention of the bartender. This is something we all do, but Paschal notices it, and in the little sliver of a physical space that she creates, we see something illuminating about human nature. I don't think anything could top the sheer, wrenching emotional power of her suicide show last year, but in many ways, this more mellow new show is as deeply affecting in another way. Relying not on the shock of the subject matter but more her extremely astute observations about the way that people behave, you walk out feeling as if you know her better than ever. Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: Jessi, the Fresno Undercurrent Performer Mia Paschal gave her first Rogue performance last year with This Lily was (Fontana). That was a show I wasn't really interested in seeing, but I happened to be at that venue at that time with no other plans, so I checked it out and I was completely blown away. When I saw that she was back this year with Along the Path of Larks and Swallows, the show became one of my first priorities. I feel at a loss to do her fantastic performance justice in a review, so I offer just these words: intense, deliberate, dreamy, poetic, rhythmic, entrancing, human in every sense imaginable, profound, and tornado (this last word her own, but a perfect descriptor). I even liked this show a little better than last year's; I felt like it came together in a more relatable way (though last year's was more edgy). Give this one-woman show a try, but get there early there were few (if any?) spare seats at her Saturday evening performance (the debut of the show). Play: Along the Paths of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: Airplane Jayne 5 Stars After seeing "This Lily Was..." at last year's Rogue Festival, I didn’t think Mia could wow me more... — but she did! This petite powderkeg of passion shares and bares her soul to all. This performance touched and moved me immensely. Make sure to put this show at the top of your S.F. Fringe, "Must See" list. See this show! Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: Liesl Garner 5 Stars I must echo Joy in that I fell madly, passionately (in a strictly platonic, admiring sort of way) in love with Mia Paschal last year after her brilliant performance of "This Lily Was (Fontana)." She was at the top of my list to see again this year - and she is once again, completely amazing. Particularly moving to me was her fierce, impassioned, totally brave segment on racism - and then how she tied it together so that it wasn’t just about one woman’s experience, or one race’s experience, but that we all have our places of hurt that others can trample on - we can be the heavy girl, the too tall girl, the redhead girl, the person who loves what others find taboo. We are all human, and we all have little niches that divide us or that can bring us closer once we understand them. I love her little spaces - so many gorgeous pictures. I love her big spaces - and how she wants to do cartwheels there. I love the Boxer on the beach and how many times she finds him, and then finds home. Oh, Mia - you are so beautiful and so deliciously complex. You speak such volumes of beauty and pain. I adore your use of the stage - your running and skipping, climbing between audience members, and then falling down to be a catfish! Who could imagine that being part of a show about love? And you pull it off brilliantly! Unbelievable! You are such a master! No one should miss this show! Play: Along the Path of Larks and Swallows Reviewer: Joy Mohler 5 Stars I fell madly in love with Mia Paschal as a performer when she performed at the Rogue Performance Festival in 2007, and there was no way I was going to miss her new show at Rogue 2008. I am even more in love with her now. Literally, I have been THROUGH love with Mia Paschal. Along the Path of Larks and Swallows is a journey through love and life; bobbing and weaving through uncertainty, abandon, heartache and heart’s home. As I watched I felt she had dived into my heart and soul, plucking out all those private triumphs and tribulations. But really she is just acting out the truth of our collective, yet unique, experiences of romance, lust, comfort, belonging, and longing for connection. We all know that love can be sweet, poignant, painful, volcanic, sublime, confusing, comical, absurd, even horrifying. Mia Paschal's performance conveys all the subtle nuances of the hope, bliss, and despair that accompanies emotional and romantic connection to another human. Her voice is her own, and yet it could easily have been mine, or that of the person sitting at either side of me. One comment I heard after seeing this show was about how dense her material is. Do not let that be daunting. There is a lot packed into one hour, but it isn’t hard to understand. She says as much in manner and intent as she does in spoken word. You don’t just know what she means. You feel what she means, sometimes more when she does NOT say it, in those spaces between the lines. So, yes, the material is dense, but it is because she is not just telling the tale. She IS the tale, and you are the tale. She is not telling it, she is living it, and you are living it with her. She is sublime. A powerhouse of a writer, a powerhouse of a performer. This is a show that should be at the top of everyone’s list to see before it goes away.