SYNOPSIS: Solo performer Ada Cheng explores how one learns womanhood, love, and abuse in different sociopolitical and cultural contexts through personal stories. An intense personal journey and autobiographical, this solo show weaves tales of breaking rules and broken hearts across borders. This performance is relevant to current debates about gender equality and women’s status in American society and across the globe.
FRIDAY, JUNE 25 @ 7:00 PM Central
Join us for a powerful, live reading via Zoom. The reading runs about 60 minutes with no intermission. Following the reading, stay in our virtual space for a group discussion and share actions you can take. For more information, read our Backstage Guide in your browser or download pdf.
Buy tickets HERE or call (773) 654-3103 until Friday, June 25 @ 3:00 PM Central. Suggested donation is $10 or pay-what-you-can. Your Zoom link will be sent the day before the reading and again 1 hour before the reading starts. For any questions or to get on a waitlist, contact us at BoxOffice@AmericanBluesTheater.com.
Additional Resources
The Family Institute at Northwestern University – they bring together a diverse group of leading therapists to provide behavioral health care to children, adults, couples and families across the lifespan.
Women’s Global Empowerment Fund – strives to develop programs that produce reductions in poverty and the marginalization of women and their families by providing economic, social and political opportunities for sustainability and self-determination
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Chicago – is a nonprofit organization working towards racial equity through collective advocacy and organizing.
Creative Team
ADA CHENG she/her (Writer / Performer) is a proud Artistic Affiliate of American Blues Theater. She is a professor-turned-storyteller, solo performer, and storytelling show producer. She debuted her first solo show, Not Quite: Asian American by Law, Asian Woman by Desire, in 2017 and has since performed it at National Storytelling Conference (Kansas City, MO), Capital Fringe Festival (Washington D.C.), Minnesota Fringe Festival (Minneapolis, MN), Bolder Fringe Festival (Bolder, CO), and Kum & Go Theater (Des Moines, IA). This solo performance was also the keynote for 2019 Women and Girls in Georgia Conference. She debuted her second solo show, Breaking Rules, Broken Hearts: Loving Across Borders in January 2018 and has since performed it at The Exit Theatre in San Francisco, Theatre Row with the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York, and Theatre 68 with Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival in LA. She has been featured at storytelling shows and has brought her solo performances to universities across the nation.
CARA PARRISH she/her (Stage Manager) is a proud Ensemble Member of American Blues Theater where she is also the Office & HR Manager. Chicago credits: Gem of the Ocean, Electra, Hard Problem, Photograph 51, Five Guys Named Moe, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Lady From the Sea (Court Theatre); WITCH, Port Authority, Yellow Moon, The Letters, The Caretaker, Death of a Streetcar Named Virginia Woolf, & The Blond, The Brunette, and the Vengeful Redhead (Writers Theatre); Too Heavy for Your Pocket & The Vibrator Play (TimeLine Theatre Company); James and the Giant Peach (Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook); Jabari Dreams of Freedom (Chicago Children’sTheatre); Romeo and Juliet & Emma (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Beauty’s Daughter & Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (American Blues Theater). Cara is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.
We wish to express our gratitude to the Performers’ Unions (Actors’ Equity Association, American Guild of Musical Artists, American Guild of Variety Artists, SAG-AFTRA) through Theatre Authority, Inc. for their cooperation in permitting the artists to appear on this program.