Ada A.

Ada A.

Ada A. is a Catholic playwright. A graduate of the University of Chicago, she was a 2021 National Young Playwright in Residency at Echo Theater Company in Los Angeles. She was, also, the inaugural artist in residency for Prop Thtr’s Nest Residency in 2021. She was a 2022 Semi-Finalist for Black Theatre’s Future of Playwriting Prize. Recent works include Tokens of Promise (2022 BAPF Semi-Finalist), developed as...
Ada A. is a Catholic playwright. A graduate of the University of Chicago, she was a 2021 National Young Playwright in Residency at Echo Theater Company in Los Angeles. She was, also, the inaugural artist in residency for Prop Thtr’s Nest Residency in 2021. She was a 2022 Semi-Finalist for Black Theatre’s Future of Playwriting Prize. Recent works include Tokens of Promise (2022 BAPF Semi-Finalist), developed as part of Goodman Theatre’s Future Labs and Victory Garden Theater’s IGNITE Chicago. Good Years (2021 BAPF Semi-Finalist), Peking Apples (National Young Playwrights Residency). Her one-act play, The Reverend Dr. Paul(i) Murray, was commissioned and produced by Valiant Theatre in Chicago; it was later produced at the Overtime Theater in San Antonio. Ada is a proud artistic associate of Prop Thtr.

Plays

  • Peking Apples by Ada A.
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: adoption, black-asian relations + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: adoption, black-asian relations, Stop Asian Hate, sinophobia
    Amy, Rose and Stevie -three Chinese adoptees – anxiously come together for their annual reunion party, delayed two years due to Covid-19. In the period away from each other, Amy has married a black man, Stevie is affianced with a Chinese national and Rose. Rose is popular enough on Twitter to have a blue check. Now that each one is more secure with their life choices, they begin to butt head as they are no...
    Amy, Rose and Stevie -three Chinese adoptees – anxiously come together for their annual reunion party, delayed two years due to Covid-19. In the period away from each other, Amy has married a black man, Stevie is affianced with a Chinese national and Rose. Rose is popular enough on Twitter to have a blue check. Now that each one is more secure with their life choices, they begin to butt head as they are no longer able to understand each other’s life direction. Sisterhood unravels into antagonism as ideas of family, belonging, and the trauma of being adopted become irreconcilable points of no return.
  • Tokens of Promise by Ada A.
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: dark comedy, movement/physical + 2 more
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    Keyword: job search, capitalism + 6 more
    Genre: dark comedy, movement/physical, political, satire
    Keyword: job search, capitalism, diversity, inclusion, racism, satire, political, 20-somethings
    There’s only one open “diversity” analyst position at this start-up. And the minorities must duke it out to access the sweet privilege of employment. A wicked satire about the modern-day job search and scarcity mentality, Ada A.’s new play exposes the inherent competition in employment that leads us to forsake our humanity out of necessity and survival.
  • Good Years by Ada A.
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: dark comedy, movement/physical + 1 more
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    Keyword: teenage girls, fandom + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy, movement/physical, period
    Keyword: teenage girls, fandom, one direction, Twitter, sexism, internet
    As five teenage girls congregate regularly on the holy steps of twitter.com as OG One Direction stan accounts, the girls’ fandom gradually devolves into righteous fanaticism. Being One Direction fans exposes the girls to their first confrontations with racism, classism, and overt sexism. In this cyber coming-of-age story, where memories are both ephemeral and archived, Dada-our narrator-, welcomes us into the...
    As five teenage girls congregate regularly on the holy steps of twitter.com as OG One Direction stan accounts, the girls’ fandom gradually devolves into righteous fanaticism. Being One Direction fans exposes the girls to their first confrontations with racism, classism, and overt sexism. In this cyber coming-of-age story, where memories are both ephemeral and archived, Dada-our narrator-, welcomes us into the world of One Direction Twitter™.
  • Placebo by Ada A.
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: dark comedy, political + 1 more
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    Keyword: teenage girls, revolution + 5 more
    Genre: dark comedy, political, satire
    Keyword: teenage girls, revolution, weight, beauty, body dysmorphia, body acceptance, fat
    Teenage girls stage an uprising in a weight-loss correctional facility. Through revolution and liberation, these girls begin to take back their image and who they are from the mirrors and people who have oppressed them.
  • The Reverend Dr. Paul(i) Murray by Ada A.
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 1 more
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    Keyword: queer history, History + 1 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama
    Keyword: queer history, History, Academia
    Pauli Murray's queerness is brought to the forefront of her identity as Kalina, an undergrad, questions her professor's assessment of a recent essay that she wrote for his class. However, when Kalina's essay-version of Pauli is confronted with Pauli, herself, Kalina is forced to ponder the many ways that by upholding Murray's legacy she is denying Murray of her humanity.

    This...
    Pauli Murray's queerness is brought to the forefront of her identity as Kalina, an undergrad, questions her professor's assessment of a recent essay that she wrote for his class. However, when Kalina's essay-version of Pauli is confronted with Pauli, herself, Kalina is forced to ponder the many ways that by upholding Murray's legacy she is denying Murray of her humanity.

    This one-act play explores the tensions and limitations of exploring the past using the words of the "present."
  • United Separatism by Ada A.
    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: Race, college + 3 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: Race, college, colonialism, blackness, solidarity
    After Chioma publishes a scathing article in her college newspaper's opinion section about the apathy among first-generation African Americans, her friend Ogechi calls her to task for throwing "her people" under the bus.

    As two first generation Nigerian-Americans, Chioma and Ogechi argue over what it means to be in solidarity with Black Americans as they relentlessly interrogate...
    After Chioma publishes a scathing article in her college newspaper's opinion section about the apathy among first-generation African Americans, her friend Ogechi calls her to task for throwing "her people" under the bus.

    As two first generation Nigerian-Americans, Chioma and Ogechi argue over what it means to be in solidarity with Black Americans as they relentlessly interrogate what blackness means for diasporic people and the historical constructions of blackness.