Finding his voice
Comedian Alaudin Ullah showcases his unique American experience in his one-man show ‘Dishwasher Dreams’ at Hartford Stage
If you spent much time in New York comedy clubs in the 1990s, you likely remember Alaudin Ullah. At the time, he went by the stage name “Alladin,” but traveling to Bangladesh after his mother died he reclaimed that part of his identity.
“Every time I was in the Middle East, everyone pronounced my name properly. Here, people wouldn’t get it. My mother used to say ‘Why not make them pronounce it?’ ”
“South Asians have not had an authentic voice” in the arts in America, says Ullah. “I haven’t seen an honest portrayal of South Asians.”
His one-person show “Dishwasher Dreams,” at Hartford Stage Feb. 24 through March 20, looks to change that. In the play he notes that “America is weird but I learned to turn it on them. Beat ‘em at their own game! Have a sense of humor about the injustice.”
“Dishwasher Dreams” is about Ullah’s adventures as a comedian, writer, actor and the son of Bengali immigrants, as well as his childhood in the Spanish Harlem section of New York City.
But the show is also about his parents, particularly how he came to realize that their struggles in America were at least as hard as his own.
“We look at our parents as if they are from another world, as if we have nothing in common with them. But some of the things I experienced in comedy and acting, I now think if this is hard for me, what was it like for my father?”
Years ago, he left the full-time, latenight grind of comedy clubs and turned his talents to playwriting.
“Comedy is cute when you’re 22, but when you’re in your 30s it’s different,” says Ullah, now in his 50s. “I didn’t want to end up bitter and cynical.”
When not working on a slew of writing projects, as well as the forthcoming documentary “Bengali Harlem,” he works for the New York Department of Education giving young performers advice on how to start their careers.
As a playwright he’s studied with some of the greats: David Henry Hwang (“M. Butterfly”), Lynn Nottage (“Sweat”) and Paula Vogel (“The Baltimore Waltz”).
He had similarly been schooled in comedy from some of the greats in that field, including George Carlin and Paul Mooney. But the biggest lesson he learned, he says, was to not let other people tell him who he was.
“Without naming names, I’ve mentored a lot of people who’ve become famous, and told them to be true to themselves.
David Henry Hwang told me ‘You’ve helped many people. The theater deserves to hear your voice.’ ”
He fought with casting agents over being typecast in Asian or Muslim roles, and questioned whether the roles themselves had any truth to them.
“The Muslim was always the boogie man. There was this formula where the Muslim is demonized, as one monolithic thing. I would tell casting directors ‘Do you even know any Muslims?’ The system didn’t welcome that. The ’90s was not woke like it is now. It was racist to the tenth power.”
Ullah’s learned how a career, or a life, can change overnight based on unexpected events. He recalls a night when the New York Times critic and comedy scholar Mel Watkins “showed up at ‘Don’t Tell Mama’ on the same night that my mother called me a bum and walked out.”
All this makes for a fascinating one-man show, which he has been developing for years and is still tweaking as he rehearses it for its Hartford Stage run.
One of Ullah’s talents has come in handy for “Dishwasher Dreams” — within moments of the play’s beginning, he’s already playing several different characters.
“When I was younger, I was an impressionist,” he says. “I could do my teachers, my entire class. I always did characters. I created a repertoire of characters expressly for comedy.”
Director Chay Yew, who was the artistic director of Chicago’s Victory Gardens from 2011-2020 and who has directed several plays at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven over the years, is known for clean, precise productions, often with elaborate special effects, but Ullah told him “a lot of shows camouflage the raw emotions with the design. I want my performance to be what the audience comes to see. I want it to be the real me.”
At the same time, Ullah promises “a lot of movement,” all those voices and the constant presence of onstage musician Avirodh Sharma, a virtuoso on the Indian percussion instrument the tabla.
“It’s the most difficult instrument to score a show with,” Ullah says. “A lot of directors wouldn’t know what to do with that. But
Chay is the genius. Chay said ‘I got you.’
“We have passionate arguments, and he’s right 90% of the time. It’s great to be in rehearsal with him. It’s like when you’re playing basketball with friends and you do a no-look pass because you know they’re there for you.”
He says his theatrical inspirations for “Dishwasher Dreams” include solo shows he’s seen by some of the greatest practitioners of the one-person show: Eric Bogosian, Sarah Jones and John Leguizamo (the last of which happens to have written “Kiss My Aztec,” which Hartford Stage is producing later this year).
He particularly mentions Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s “Lackawanna Blues,” which like “Dishwasher Dreams” is about growing up in a tough, interesting neighborhood and finding one’s artistic voice.
“That show changed my life. I was in the lobby crying. It was the first time I saw people who looked like people I grew up with. I thought, ‘That’s what I want to do, but with a tabla player instead of a blues guitarist.”
The awareness that he has a unique voice and is attempting to give theater audiences an experience they’ve never had before, makes “Dishwasher Dreams” an exciting prospect for Hartford Stage.
“I still am surprised that people are even interested in me,” Ullah says. “I indict America.”
“Dishwasher Dreams,” written and performed by Alaudin Ullah and directed by Chay Yew, runs Feb.24 to March 20 at Hartford Stage in downtown Hartford. Tickets $20 to $100. Proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test is required. Masks required. hartfordstage.org.
“South Asians have not had an authentic voice” in the arts in America. I haven’t seen an honest portrayal of South Asians.”
— Alaudin Ullah