Stephen J. Albert, the executive director of Court Theatre in Hyde Park, a nationally respected nonprofit theater executive and a man of creative passion and evangelical energy, died Friday night at age 66.
The announcement of Albert’s death was made Saturday by Charles Newell, the artistic director of Court and Albert’s longtime partner at one of Chicago’s most prestigious theater companies. Albert had long been suffering from cancer, and his death, Newell said, was due to complications from surgery.
Albert was born in Kittery, Maine, on Nov. 6, 1951. He joined Court Theatre in 2010, and also was the founding partner of Albert Hall & Associates, a national nonprofit management recruitment consultancy.
Before coming to Court, Albert had been the longtime managing director at Hartford Stage in Connecticut, an assignment that followed similar leadership posts at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and the Alley Theatre in Houston.
At Court, he presided over a robust period of growth, coupled with the cultivation of a much closer alliance with the University of Chicago, on whose campus the long-independent theater is housed. In November, Albert announced that he intended to step down from his position in the fall of 2018, allowing him to focus on his health and personal concerns.
At his many breakfast and lunch meetings with colleagues and friends, he was notably optimistic about the future.
“To know my dad was to love my dad,” said his daughter, Jessica Albert of Miami. “He had a way with words that was poetic. His poetry guided me through my whole life, as it did so many other people. He always was so wise. He radiated so much light and positive energy.”
Albert, his devoted family said, was always thrilled to be working at Court.
“I watched him take hold of a regional theater that had not been very connected to its community,” Jessica Albert said. “He went to a different church every week to meet people. He wanted to share his passion and his love with everyone.”
“For many years,” Newell said, “we at Court had an idea and a plan of where we might go. But Steve was the one who took us there. He believed in dreaming big and then figuring out how you could get even partially there. He also became a dear, close friend, and I am the better man for that.”
Indeed, Albert was pivotal in Court’s dramatically increased outreach to the mostly African-American communities that bordered Hyde Park, its longtime base of supporters.
“When I think of my brother,” said Larry Albert, also of Miami, “the first thing that comes to my mind is creativity. But what made him so effective was his ability to take a creative vision and verbalize it. The marriage of those two strengths was what made him so formidable.”
“Even in his last days he was telling jokes,” Jessica Albert said.
“Bad jokes,” added Stephen’s wife, Terri.
A memorial service is tentatively scheduled for 10 a.m. Jan. 27 at Court Theatre.
“My dad said to me a long time ago that he wanted his funeral to be a party,” said Jessica Albert. “Of course he did. We’re all going to try our best.”
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
