Mornings, I believe, are best when one can slowly ease away the cobwebs of sleep, slowly make the necessary ablutions and slowly brew a cup of steamy hot strong coffee to slowly sip while watching the daybreak slowly on the horizon. Sense a theme here? Slow and steady works! Or so I always thought. Until a recent early morning chat with Tony-award winning actress Ali Stroker, gave me pause to reconsider.
Ali, up early and enroute from her Briarcliff Manor home to a college workshop in southern Jersey, was a veritable force of nature from the moment we said our first hellos. Upbeat and energetic, engaged and thoughtful, warm and friendly…instead of slow and steady, this was ready, set, go on a cold December morning at the crack of dawn!
And what makes Ali go? The easier question might be what doesn’t. As she modestly puts it, “I love to work, and am happiest when my life is diversified, so I keep lots of pots on my stove”.
What’s stirring in Ali’s pots? Acting comes first and foremost to mind of course, as most of us know Ali from her 2019 Tony-award winning performance as “Ado Annie” in the Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!. The award created immediate buzz in the theatre community and beyond as Ali became the first actor in a wheelchair to win a Broadway Tony. That said and while the Tony may have been an industry first, it wasn’t Ali’s first time on Broadway – she had cleared that particular hurdle in 2015 performing in Deaf West Theatre’s revival of Spring Awakening. Additionally, many fans already knew her from TV’s 2011 reality series The Glee Project which, after Ali made it through all 12 episodes, led to a guest role on Fox’s Glee and then to additional hit shows like Ozark and Only Murders in the Building.
While acting is front-burner much of the time, when the theatre world quiets down – as Ali says is often the case in December – she’ll stir up her workshop pot and focus on spreading her motivational message and self-proclaimed motto: “Turning your limitations into your opportunities.” This could mean everything from speaking engagements to, like her workshop this morning, facilitating a theatre-student college workshop. Audiences and students are abled, disabled, universal in their desire to open themselves to hear and to learn. Ali shares her personal story and the positive ways we can all be successful regardless of, or in some cases even due to, the cards we’ve been handed.
Ali’s hand of cards was dealt early. Born across the river in Ridgewood, New Jersey, Ali says she and her two siblings along with their Physical Education teacher dad and hands-on stay-at-home mom, were the quintessential “sports family”. When a car accident left Ali paralyzed from the chest down at the age of two, the home team effort became next level; Ali’s mom became her fiercest advocate, and her dad instilled in her the “never give up” attitude. From both, she learned “that our challenges make us stronger.”
And strength is both physical and spiritual for Ali. She shares that she “was always a happy child” but being paralyzed “felt stuck on all fronts.” Then she discovered her voice and singing, and her whole world opened up. Musical theatre became her passion, and, being cast as “Annie” in a backyard family musical at seven years old was “the moment my life changed.”
Love of theatre took Ali to NYU where she met her husband, David Perlow. Students in the same musical theatre program, they developed a deep friendship and trust. They are each other’s biggest fans and, though raised with different religions, share a common spirituality, one that focuses on being kind to others. That core relationship value is foundational to their own family as they’ve embraced their role as parents to their now two-year-old son Jesse.
Ali, David and Jesse love living in Briarcliff Manor. For David, who grew up in town, it is a return to his roots. And Ali finds it reminds her of her own suburban childhood, with the added bonus of the easy commute to Manhattan. Ali has found personal trainers, chiropractors and doctors to help her stay physically strong but shares that “health and wellness is also about people, and finding community adds so much to that”. The couple work hard to make sure they find time in their busy professional schedule for community and for each other. Even at warp speed, work/life balance is important, so they make time to enjoy date nights at local restaurants, sharing morning coffee at local beaneries while Jesse is in pre-school, and exploring their limitless future together.
P.S. There are many full-circle moments in Ali’s life. From backyard musical Annie to Broadway Ado Annie. From paralysis to the unbound freedom of performance, and from a life changed at the age of two to watching her own two-year-old explore the world. Our interview ends when Ali arrives at her speaking gig and leaves me with this final thought: “Maybe I was born for this, for this challenge and for this purpose to help people.” And then, like the force of nature she is, she is off!
