Longtime Steppenwolf artistic director Martha Lavey dies at 60
Longtime Steppenwolf Theatre artistic director Martha Lavey, a titan of Chicago theater, died Tuesday from complications from a stroke she suffered April 19. She was 60.
"For all of her intellectual heft, her hard work and stoicism, my memories will be of her laughing," said ensemble member and current artistic director Anna D. Shapiro, whose voice caught when she described her colleague.
Lavey joined the ensemble in 1993. An actor and scholar with a doctorate from Northwestern University, she took over as artistic director two years later and held the position until 2015, the same year she suffered her first stroke.
"This place was the center of her life and we are the beneficiaries of her efforts," Shapiro said of Lavey, whose arrival marked a new phase for the company that transformed under her leadership from a family business into an international powerhouse.
Lavey commissioned playwrights, promoted new works, expanded the ensemble, oversaw Broadway transfers, initiated the young adults series and established Garage Theater, moving Steppenwolf onto the regional stage, said Shapiro, an ensemble member since 2005 who succeeded Lavey in 2015.
The first person outside the original members to lead the company, Lavey was its longest serving artistic director. Nine of its 12 Tony Awards came during her 19-year tenure, Shapiro said.
Erudite and unwavering, "she was an impeccable role model. She never trafficked in any gender dynamics," Shapiro said. "She didn't suffer fools. And she didn't spend time apologizing or qualifying decisions."
Without her, Steppenwolf's "August: Osage County," Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning drama wouldn't have happened, said Shapiro, who earned a Tony for directing "August." Lavey convinced the board of directors to fund the show.
"She said, 'This is everything we're about. You have to invest in who we are,'" Shapiro recalled.
A celebration of Lavey's life will take place at Steppenwolf at a later date.