Ali Stroker says that her life took a radical turn the summer she was 7. Her next-door neighbor decided to direct a backyard production of Annie and cast Stroker as Annie. “It was a really special summer. I remember my life beginning,” says Stroker. From the time she was 2, a car accident left her paralyzed from the chest down. “I felt like my identity was around my wheelchair for so long” she says. “Once I started performing I was someone else. I could be an actress and singer and not just a girl in a wheelchair.”
From that Annie production, Stroker was hooked. Playing different roles, becoming a variety of people was healing. Performing bolstered her confidence. “It served different purposes not only in my career, but also helped me become the person that I am today,” she says. She also took voice lessons finding singing to be totally liberating. “Being paralyzed my body doesn’t necessarily always do what I want it to do,” Stroker explains. “But with my voice there are no limitations. It’s not held back by anything.”
When she was 11, she was cast in a professional singing group, the Kids for Kids Project, and toured the country talking about inclusion and raising awareness for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. “I was working with other professional kids, and it made me really realize that I wanted to do this as a career,” says Stroker.
Stroker auditioned for and was accepted into New York University’s prestigious musical theater program at the time, CAP21. The curriculum had a huge dance component. Ever unstoppable, by end of freshman year Stroker was taking full dance classes. “I said what I’m doing may not look like the rest of the students. But it was an opportunity to be creative,” she explains.
In fact, she found her peers to be very supportive and on board from the get go. In dance class they helped her move across the floor. “First and foremost they liked me as a person. And they wanted me to be a part of it too,” Stroker shares. “They said, ‘this is cool. This is different.’ I was with my people.”
Stroker thrived. She became the first actress in a wheelchair to earn a degree from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Drama Department. At graduation she was chosen to be the class representative to receive the actual diploma at Yankee Stadium. She met Hillary Clinton, her face was on the Jumbotron. “All this hard work really paid off and was a dream come true,” says Stroker. “I was raised that if you have a goal you can make anything happen. Anything is possible.”
After Stroker graduated she relocated to Los Angeles. She guest-starred on Season 4 of Glee. Then her agents sent her to audition for a Deaf West Theatre production of Spring Awakening in Los Angeles. The musical about the struggles of young people to be acknowledged and understood was originally on Broadway in 2006. Since 1991, Deaf West has been known for marrying American Sign Language (ASL) with spoken English almost like a ballet. Using ASL heightens the story and makes riveting theater for deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing individuals.
Stroker won the role of Anna in Spring Awakening. “Half the cast was deaf,” she says. “I was with people who really understood what it’s like to want to be a performer—to know you have a talent, but you do it differently.” Never did she think the production in a small theater in downtown Los Angeles was going to take her to Broadway. “We were getting paid like 60 bucks a week,” she recalls. “People may say, let’s bring this show to Broadway. You don’t believe that until you actually show up.”
When it was announced that the show was transferring to Broadway, the producers said to Stroker, “you’re coming.” An accessible dressing room was created. “There were no issues. They said, ‘we’re going to make this happen’,” she recalls. “At our invited dress rehearsal where people from other Broadway shows come, my entire body was tingling. I felt so full. I finally arrived at this lifelong dream.”
When Spring Awakening opened this past September, Stroker made history as the first actress in a wheelchair to appear on a Broadway stage. “I have lived my entire life needing to be creative to solve problems for my wheelchair. I bring that into the production as well,” explains Stroker. “Also, because of my unique experience living in a chair, I give something different to a character, a unique perspective.”
A critical smash, Spring Awakening played on Broadway for an extended run and was nominated for three Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical. Stroker also recently starred in a special production of Eve Ensler’s hit play The Vagina Monologues which toured a group of correctional facilities in honor of V-Day, which aims to end violence against women & girls. The show featured a cast of professional actresses, activists and formerly incarcerated women. “Often there’s a lot of shame and discomfort talking about our bodies,” says Stroker. “It’s important to help enable people to talk about sexuality.”
Earlier this year Stroker shared her story in her TEDx Talk, If There’s a Wheel There’s a Way. She hopes to inspire people to follow their dreams no matter where they are in life. “There are things that I can’t do. But there are so many things that I can do and offer,” she says. “One of the greatest parts about being in a chair is that I can’t hide. My greatest strength and my greatest insecurity are out there for the world to see. But we all have challenges. It doesn’t matter who your are. Everyone is facing them.”
Learn more about Ali Stroker at alistroker.com
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