Paper Mill Playhouse Trained Ali Stroker Wins Tony Award

MILLBURN, NJ - Ali Stroker made history Sunday night.

Stroker, a Ridgewood native, won the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical Award for her role as Annie Ado in the edgy revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!." She is the first wheelchair using actor to win a Tony Award.
"This award is for every kid who is watching tonight who has a disability, a limitation, a challenge, who has been waiting to see themselves represented in this arena. You are," People.com reported. The audience gave her a standing ovation.

Stroker became paralyzed from the waist down when she was 2. Her spinal cord was damaged in a car accident. She has never let her disability define her.

She is an alumna of the Summer Professional Training Program at Paper Mill Playhouse. She received critical acclaim for her role as "Olive" in "The Twenty-Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." The performance earned her a Barrymore Award nomination.

According to their website, since its inception in 1996, the Paper Mill Playhouse Summer Musical Theater Conservatory and the New Voices Concert have ignited the careers of many notable performers. Among the Conservatory alumni are Academy Award winner Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables), Tony Award winners Laura Benanti (Gypsy) and Nikki M. James (The Book of Mormon), Tony nominee Rob McClure (Chaplin), Jelani Remy (Disney's The Lion King), Shanice Williams, star of NBC's The Wiz Live!, and Olivier Award nominee Jared Gertner (The Book of Mormon).

The program now counts Stroker among that distinguished list.

In 2015, Stroker became the first actor in a wheelchair to perform on a Broadway stage. She played Anna in "Spring Awakening."

In 2012, she placed second on the second season of "The Glee Project" and appeared on Fox's "Glee" in 2013.

In 2017, Stroker received New York University's Distinguished Young Alumna Award. She attended NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

This story contains reporting by Dan Hubbard.

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