Ada Cheng couldn’t tell her hairstylist she hated her haircut. That small, specific failure to speak up became the entry point for an entire solo show about boundaries, people-pleasing, and everyone she’s ever struggled to be honest with.
Developed with director Jessica Lynn Johnson of Soaring Solo Studios, The Trouble with My Hair: Coloring, Cutting, and Coming into Who I Am makes its Scranton Fringe premiere at AFA Gallery on Saturday, October 3 at 2:30 PM or 8:30 PM, or Sunday, October 4 at 2:30 PM. We talked to Ada about queerness, the Asian diaspora, and what it actually takes to break up with yourself before you can break up with anyone else.
In your own words, what is your show about?
For my solo performance, I use hair and my relationship with my hairstylist as the metaphor to explore gender, sexual, and racial identities. More specifically, I use hair to examine queerness, Asian diaspora, family expectations, and self-love.
What sparked this piece?
I found myself having difficulty telling my hairstylist that I didn’t like my haircut or I could not articulate what I wanted. The former stems from my people-pleasing tendency. The latter stems from the fact that I don’t know how to articulate my desire or even know what my desires are. I had to explore the root causes of all these struggles, particularly since I was paying a service. Fundamentally, the issue is my inability to draw boundaries. I had to ask myself why it was so difficult for me to be honest with my feelings in precise wording in general.
My relationship with my hairstylist is exactly the same as my relationships with loved ones and others. Through this show, I am learning to get to a place where I can be honest with others while staying true to myself and to my own needs.
What does “Fringe” mean to you as an artist?
Fringe is the space open to all, particularly the ones that are traditionally marginalized, be it about genre, identity, community, or politics. I enjoy creating art in the margin. I find that to be the best place to create, where I can experiment, grow, and push my own boundaries. That’s also a place where I like to occupy so I can create without the need for external validation and approval.
What do you want someone to feel — or think about differently — after seeing your show?
This is a show that is funny but also incredibly vulnerable at the same time. It is entertaining but also heartbreaking and thought-provoking. Through this show, I have learned to display vulnerability differently. I want people to laugh and to be entertained but I also want them to feel and to think deeply. All these qualities are not mutually exclusive.
Most importantly, I want people to know that human existence is messy. There is nothing linear and straightforward about healing and transformation. I want to explore the messiness of the human desires and relationships.
What’s been the hardest or most surprising part of making this?
The hardest thing is to break up with myself artistically and personally, the same way I have been trying to break up with my hairstylist, metaphorically speaking. Since I started writing this show, I started drawing firm boundaries, letting go of things that no longer serve me, and writing and performing differently. You don’t do a show about breaking up with someone else without first breaking up with yourself. That’s the same process and dynamic.
Catch The Trouble with My Hair: Coloring, Cutting, and Coming into Who I Am at AFA Gallery on Saturday, October 3 at 2:30 PM or 8:30 PM, or Sunday, October 4 at 2:30 PM, as part of the 2026 Scranton Fringe Festival. Buy tickets here. Ada also answered a few more questions in a video we shared earlier — worth a rewatch if you missed it.
