[NoHo Arts District, CA] – Ada Cheng brings her show The Trouble with My Hair: Coloring, Cutting, and Coming into Who I Am to Soaring Solo Stars Series on October 30.
About The Trouble with My Hair: Coloring, Cutting, and Coming into Who I Am:
The Trouble with My Hair: Coloring, Cutting, and Coming into Who I Am, written and performed by storyteller and solo performer Ada Cheng, is an intimate exploration of her gender, sexual, and racial identities and boundary-making through her evolving relationships with her hair and her stylists. Blending theatrical storytelling and narrative art, Ada Cheng playfully brings the audience on an emotional and thought-provoking journey of self-discovery and self-love through her struggles with her hair. Using hair as a metaphor, she explores the relationship between the self and community/society and the challenges in navigating the tension between autonomy and social constraints.
This solo performance is developed with and directed by Jessica Lynn Johnson. This performance will be followed by a talkback, hosted by Jessica Lynn Johnson.
About Ada Cheng:
An award-winning educator, artist, and keynote speaker, Ada Cheng has utilized storytelling to illustrate structural inequities, raise critical awareness, and build intimate communities. Committed to amplifying and uplifting marginalized voices, she has created numerous storytelling platforms for BIPOC and LGBTQIA community members to tell difficult and vulnerable stories. Since 2016 she has been featured at storytelling shows and done her two solo performances, NOT QUITE and LOVING ACROSS BORDERS, in theaters, festivals, universities, and conferences across the nation. She has performed her solo performances as part of her keynotes for conferences and universities since then. Talented as a curator and producer, Ada Cheng has created multiple storytelling platforms for all to share stories, including Pour One Out: A Monthly Storytelling Series, Talk Stories: An Asian American/Asian Diaspora Storytelling, Dare to Tell: Queer Asian American/Asian Diaspora Storytelling, and Am I Man Enough: Stories of Toxic Masculinity, and Speaking Truths Series.
Ada Cheng has worked with numerous community, state, and national organizations on community building and storytelling. Her most recent involvement in some state-level projects, for example Common Table DeKalb, seeks to bring people and communities across the state together for productive dialogues using storytelling and story-sharing. Ada Cheng has been a speaker for Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau since 2019. She was named Educator of the Year in 2021. She was the 2023-24 Lund-Gill Chair at Dominican University. She was one of the Illinois Humanities Public Humanities Award honorees in 2024, recognized for her consistent use of storytelling and performance art for public education and community engagement. Her interests encompass academia, storytelling/performance, and advocacy.
About Jessical Lynn Johnson:
Jessica Lynn Johnson (Director/Developer/Co-Stars Series Producer) is a published playwright, recipient of BEST NATIONAL SOLO ARTIST AWARD from Dialogue One Solo Theatre Festival, director and teaching artist for the LA Women’s Theatre Festival, Co-Producer of the Stars Solo Series,and CEO of Soaring Solo Studios. Jessica aided in the development, direction and producing of nearly 200 solo shows! As a performer, Jessica “edu-tained” international audiences touring her own one-person shows ZE and OBLIVIOUS TO EVERYONE for over 15 years. Jessica’s projects have been awarded TOP OF FRINGE, HFF ENCORE PRODUCER AWARDS, TVOLUTION BEST SOLO PERFORMANCE, LARRY CORNWALL AWARD FOR MUSICAL EXCELLENCE and several other accolades! Jessica was also nominated for the Female Director of Distinction in Theatre by Girl Trip LLC at the 2018 Hollywood Fringe Festival, nominated as Best Director of a Play by Broadway World 2023 and awarded the Rainbow Award 2024 by the LA Women’s Theatre Festival. www.SoaringSoloStudios.com
About Heather Dowling:
Heather Dowling (Co-Producer) is an award-winning solo artist who brought to life 50 distinct characters in her two critically acclaimed one-person shows, UNEMPLOYED. FINALLY. and FERTILE. Both shows won the PRODUCERS’ ENCORE AWARD and were nominated for BEST SOLO PERFORMANCE at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2015 and 2019, and were selected for the prestigious LA WOMEN’S THEATRE FESTIVAL. They were deemed BEST OF FEST at SOLOFEST, the largest solo theatre festival on the West Coast, and were selected to be part of UNITED SOLO, the largest solo festival in the world, on 42nd Street in NYC. On the heels of her solo success, Heather started coaching for Soaring Solo Studios. She directed 5 shows that garnered 5 award nominations in the 2022 Hollywood Fringe Festival. One of the shows she directed, Asexuality: A Solo Musical! won the TOP OF FRINGE and BEST PREMIERE. Many of the shows Heather has coached and directed have been invited to the Santa Monica Playhouse Binge Fringe Festival, the LA Women’s Theatre Festival, Solofest and some have received rave reviews from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The comedy series DOWN THE MIDDLE that Heather co-wrote, produced and stars in wrapped the festival circuit and currently streams on YouTube, featuring Tom Bergeron and James Lesure. This past year, Heather made an appearance on Paramount + in Season 18 of Criminal Minds: Evolution. More info at HeatherDowling.com.
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