The Extraordinary Ali Stroker Comes To Bay Street

Ali Stroker was never destined for an ordinary life. When a car accident left her paralyzed from the waist down at age 2, anyone could have predicted that.

I remember — I came from the same home town of Ridgewood, New Jersey, and I remember the Jake and Ali Fund at the Christmas Tree Lighting the year of the accident. I remember her in her little pink wheelchair, rolling down Ridgewood Avenue with a gaggle of friends around her. She grew up in a nest of support, and from that nest, she never questioned that she’d be able to fly, wheelchair and all.

“That town came out for our family in so many ways,” said Stroker, who performs her one-woman show as part of Bay Street Theater’s Music Mondays series on August 15. “I still feel that support in my success and all of my accomplishments.”

And accomplish she has, beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. When she was cast as Ado Annie in a revival of the American musical “Oklahoma!,” she was ready to bring a new take to the classic role.

“The revival was supposed to be the dark, sexy version of ‘Oklahoma!,’” she said. “They were looking for people who were outside the box, and if I had a type, it would be that.”

The producers workshopped the show at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, and director Daniel Fish wanted to strip away all the stereotypes and find the truth in the musical. In 2019, it opened at Circle in the Square Theatre on Broadway.

“I felt proud and excited about my work, and I knew I was ready to carry this role,” Stroker said. She threw her whole self into the production — “Oklahoma!” was her life.

“I always dreamed of being at the top of my industry,” she said, “but that doesn’t come for free, and the reason it exists is because it’s the people who are willing to give up so much for it. Doing a show like that, you have to trade in your life for your work.”

The show ran from April 2019 until January 2020, and Stroker was nominated for a Tony Award. She won — making her the first person in a wheelchair to ever win the highest award in theater.

Still, when asked what her first major role was, Ali takes it back to childhood.

“I was introduced to musical theater at the Jersey Shore, performing on my neighbor’s back deck,” she recalled. “We were putting on ‘Annie,’ and I got the leading role. The whole world stopped. Everyone was staring at me, and I was used to everyone staring at me because of my disability. But to have everyone staring at me because I was the star — it gave me the control.”

She fell in love with performing, with commanding attention on her own terms. It was empowering to embrace the stare, and to decide what it was they were staring at.

“Performing and being onstage changed how I felt about my agency in my life,” Stroker said. “It changed my perspective on my identity and who I was, and made me less afraid of being in a chair.”

So she kept doing it, and the town that loved her kept gathering around to support her. She performed at Ridgewood High School and then in college. She immersed herself more and more, and part of that she actually credits to her disability.

“I think part of why I didn’t want to diversify myself was there were a lot of things I couldn’t do, physically,” she said. “I couldn’t just try everything. That wasn’t an option for me. But in the structure of what I could do, I became so focused. I didn’t take it for granted, because it was something I was capable of.”

By diving in to this ability, Stroker found joy.

“I just loved it so much; I didn’t want to do anything else,” she said. “I didn’t have a Plan B. I loved theater. It was the ultimate and it still is. There’s nowhere I feel more alive.”

When Ali Stroker comes to Bay Street Theater to perform on August 15, she will be bringing her one-woman show, where she will share her extraordinary self with the audience.

“The show is always changing,” she said. “Because I’m always changing. There will be music and songs I’ve sung for a long time, or I did in shows, and also stories from my life that were pivotal moments, when I knew I was on a certain path.”

Ali Stroker performs on Monday, August 15, at 8 p.m. as part of Music Mondays at Bay Street Theater on Long Wharf in Sag Harbor. For tickets, go to baystreet.org.