Inhale. Impale. Exhale. Repeat. Seven suicide attempts. An arm embroidered with scars. Taking your salvation where you can get it: in myths and bibles both holy and profane,  a blues legend howling along a dusty road, red velvet cake, a whispered sweet something in a language you will never understand.

In a story that takes the audience on a voyage from Arkansas to Paris to Amsterdam, from Harvard to a Hungarian terrorist cell to a Milanese psych ward,  Mia Paschal explores her former life as a cutter. Mia not only discovers the comedy within the tragedy, but reveals a deeper truth that will resonate with anyone who has ever regarded suicide and self-harm from any angle and wondered “Why?”.

Winner of the Best Female Solo Award at the 2004 San Francisco Fringe Festival for her show some life, Mia Paschal returns with the story of a cutter, scarred and tethered to her brokenrunged ladder of a heart, eventually discovering a deeper truth that will resonate with anyone who has ever wondered “Why?”. It's all so absurd, it might even be funny.. So... Inhale. Impale. Exhale. Repeat.

SFFringe audience members said: “It sings with a transcendent beauty”, “wonderful comedic moments”, “a truly excellent and courageous piece of theatre”, “pure poetry in motion”, “exceptional talent and stage presence”, “Mia transcends her pain and reigns triumphant”. 

This Lily Was (Fontana) was awarded Best of the Fringe - Best Female Dramatic Solo  at the San Francisco Fringe Festival 2006, and was selected as a Top Five Pick of the 2007 Rogue Performance Festival by the Fresno Bee.