Tony award-winning actress and now author, Ali Stroker is the first actor in a wheelchair to appear on Broadway. She is joining us this morning to talk about her inspirational new children’s book, “Ali and the Sea Stars.”
Ali Stroker says the book was inspired by her real life. She says “I was introduced to musical theater when I was seven years old, down on the Jersey shore and my book is about Ali, our main character who decides to put on a show down at the beach and she has all of the neighborhood kids audition and she casts here sister and her dad, and they go to put up the show but then something goes wrong. Ali has to get creative and solve their problem and, the show must go on and this book means so much to me and I’m so excited it is in the world.”
When asked what the inspiration was, she says it was my real life, that growing up I didn’t have a lot of content, you know books, tv shows to look to and as a little girl in a wheelchair I really didn’t see myself represented and so I continue to want to create authentic representation for young kids with disabilities because they deserve to have someone to look up to.”
Ali says, “I dreamed of being on Broadway around the time that this book, you know, I was seven years old when I was introduced to theater and I would go to see shows all the time on Broadway but I never saw anyone with a disability or in a wheelchair, so this dream so alive and so real for me but I wasn’t sure if it was ever going to be possible because it had never been done before but I was determined. So to have made it there, to have been on Broadway was and is my dream come true.”
You can find Ali and the Sea Stars anywhere books are sold.
