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This month, As I Was Saying is handing the stage to one storyteller for the whole night.Dr. Ada Cheng brings her touring solo show "The Trouble with My Hair: Coloring, Cutting, and Coming into Who I Am" to Wheaton. It’s her first new solo piece in seven years, and it’s been on the road all year, including stops at the Asheville, Tampa, Halifax and Vancouver Fringe festivals.
Through decades of haircuts, dye jobs, and the stylists who shaped her along the way, Ada traces how she came to understand her gender, sexuality, and race, and how she learned where her own boundaries were. It’s a queer performance that’s funny, playful, and at times heartbreaking, about the gap between who we’re told to be and who we are.
Stay after the show for a talkback with Kim Scott on trauma, healing, and justice, and how our art changes as we change.
Thursday, November 5, 7:30 PM
Westside Improv Studio, 125 W. Front St., Wheaton (a short walk from the Wheaton Metra stop on the UP-West line)
About 80–90 minutes, including the talkback
Tickets available: https://westsideimprov.com/tickets/p/november-5-2026
Directed by Jessica Lynn Johnson.
Ada Cheng is a former sociology professor turned storyteller and solo performer. She received the 2024 Illinois Humanities Public Humanities Award and is part of the 2026–27 Illinois Humanities Road Scholars Speakers Bureau. Find her at renegadeadacheng.com and on Instagram at @sjadacheng.
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Event venue
125 W. Front Street, Wheaton, IL, United States, Illinois 60189
Tickets
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