The Fresno Bee's Top Pick of the 2008 Rogue Performance Festival - Along the Path of Larks and Swallows
 Best of the 2006 San Francisco Fringe Festival: Best Female Solo Performance - This Lily Was (Fontana)

 The Fresno Bee's Top Pick of the 2007 Rogue Performance Festival - This Lily Was (Fontana)
 Best of the 2004 San Francisco Fringe Festival: Best Female Solo Performance - some life

 

 

                        Photographer: Kenn Phipps

 

MIA PASCHAL

 

Mia Paschal moved to San Francisco from Milan, Italy to study with Ed Hooks.

As an undergraduate at Harvard, Mia studied acting with David Wheeler; she later studied with Bill Hickey at the HB Studio in New York. In Paris, Stockholm, Helsinki and Milan, she appeared in a number of independent films and video projects. In San Francisco, she has also studied with Bruce Williams and David Ford.

Mia has performed in a number of plays and independent films in the Bay Area. She produced and performed in Heroes Theatre Company's St. Valentine's Day Massacre, a collection of comedic and dramatic scenes about dysfunctional relationships. She produced, directed and acted in After the Fall by Arthur Miller (Maggie), Harold Pinter's The Lover, and Antony and Cleopatra (Cleopatra). Mia also acted in several productions of the Rough Theatre Company's Daytrippers, one-acts conceived, written, rehearsed and performed in 24 hours, one of which won Best of the SFFringe, as well as Best New Fringe Idea, at the 2001 San Francisco Fringe Festival.

 

One of her most personally gratifying theatrical experiences was performing in A Loud Little Handful, Greg Beuthin's site-specific production of works dealing with the aftermath of war and violence, directed by Emily Koch. She also wrote, produced, and directed the digital feature The Art of Etiolation which premiered at the EXIT Theatre's DIVAfest in May 2004. She made her singing debut in On the Sixes, a cabaret by Sean Owens and Don Seaver, which was part of the EXIT Theatre's 2006 DIVAfest, and her songwriting debut the following year, for the EXIT’s DIVA Cabaret.

In September 2004, her first solo show some life, directed by Emily Koch, won the Best Female Solo Performance award at the San Francisco Fringe Festival. Her next work, This Lily Was (Fontana), received the Best of the Fringe - Best Female Dramatic Solo Award at the the 2006 San Francisco Fringe Festival, and was performed at the Marsh in San Francisco, as part of the Marsh Rising series in January 2007, and at the 2007 Rogue Performance Festival in Fresno, where the Fresno Bee selected it as a Top Five Pick of the Rogue.

Her latest solo play, Along the Path of Larks and Swallows, premiered at the 2008 Rogue Performance Festival and was chosen as a Top Ten Pick of the Rogue by the Fresno Bee.  In April 2008, Theatre Bay Area awarded Along the Path of Larks and Swallows a CA$H grant for its extended production.
 

CURTIS OVERACRE (lighting designer)

Curtis hails from the land of where the wind comes sweeping down the plain. Growing up rurally, he had a lot of spare time to create a fantasy world to live in, which drew him to the theatre.

He began by volunteering to help with costumes and make-up for the Tulsa Opera and Moves Dance Co., The  Fat Bottom Revue, and Vile Jelly Theatre.  Curtis O. went with the S.F. Buffoons to the New York Fringe Festival, where he met the Banana Bag and Bodice folks and worked with the Sandwich for the 2003 S.F. Fringe Festival, and again as a technician for Sandwich in their co-production with the EXIT in 2004.

He also designed the lights for Mia's show some life, which premiered at the SFFringe in 2004. In 2006, he designed lights for Mia's show This Lily Was (Fontana), which premiered at the 2006 San Francisco Fringe Festival, and he was the cinematographer for Vanda Chong's film, Tuberose.

Curtis will be working as a technician with the EXIT Theatre at this year's SFFringe Festival; it will be his fifth year at this festival.

JULIEN ASTRUC (stage manager, program designer)

After studying mathematics and physics and, later, doing research in particle physics at CERN (the great NA50 experiment) , Julien decided to leave his country, France, to travel and see the world.

He moved to India where he became a “Mumbaiwallah”. For 4 years, he taught physics and mathematics at the French school of Mumbai. There, he was also involved in music, playing saxophone in different bands and working as an illustrator for magazines.

6 years ago, he moved to San Francisco where he teaches science at the French American school of San Francisco.

Still drawing and painting, he also plays saxophone in a funk band, D’funkd. Visit his website: www.julienastruc.com, for more.