April 21, 2016
“An Open Conversation and Master Class with Ali Stroker, Broadway Trailblazer” will be presented on Friday, April 29 by the Shen Curriculum for Musical Theater at Yale, in partnership with the Provost Committee on Resources for Students and Employees with Disabilities.
The event, which is part of the Fridays @ Five series, will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Ballroom at 220 York St. It is free and open to the public.
The class will include a conversation and Q&A with Stroker, after which she will give a short performance and lead a master class with Yale performers.
Stroker recently appeared in the acclaimed revival of “Spring Awakening” on Broadway. When she was cast in the Deaf West Theater’s production, she became the first actress in a wheelchair to appear in a Broadway show. Stroker has been paralyzed from the chest down since the age of 2 when she was injured in an automobile accident. Alterations to the Brooks Atkinson Theatre were made so that Stroker could use the backstage areas of the theater. On stage, the actress used a specially constructed “period” wheel chair to fit in with the late 19th-century setting of the show. Stroker participated fully in the show’s elaborate choreography, using her chair to dart around the stage and substituting “wheelies” for some of the leaps called for in the dances.
https://news.yale.edu/2016/04/21/broadway-trailblazer-lead-master-class-campus
