Larry Hart, who contributed to city's Off-Loop theater movement, dies at 81

Larry Hart poured his multi-disciplinary artistic talents into fostering the Off-Loop theater movement in the 60s, 70s and beyond.

"He was part of this group of people who started doing really interesting plays and helped Chicago develop its own unique identity in the theater world," said Rick Paul, a friend and scenic designer. "Before that it was largely big national tours out of New York City that were in downtown theaters. And then these smaller theaters started churning out really good shows."

As an actor, Mr. Hart loved the outrageous, like when he performed as a nude cadaver that's being embalmed and having makeup applied in a production called "Terminal" that debuted in Chicago at Kingston Mines Theater in 1971.

The play asked the question: Have you lived your life fully?

"One of the points of the play is that we are all dying, and the actors and actresses keep pointing this out," June Pyskacek, who directed the play, told the Sun-Times in 1971.

"He'd be lying there naked, but still vocalizing as if his character was alive, especially when he was being mishandled," recalled his friend and fellow actor, Gary Houston, who was the founder and artistic director of Pary Theater Company.

"He was a force in the development of the Off-Loop theater community because he was so instrumental in so many productions," Houston said.

Mr. Hart also was a sound designer who orchestrated the sounds being piped into theaters that helped tell stories — everything from the honking of car horns, to thunderstorms and gunshots. He collaborated with a range of theaters including: Steppenwolf, Next, Body Politic, Pegasus, Lifeline, Bailiwick, Loyola University, Touchstone, and Organic.

Mr. Hart also was a graphic designer who made posters promoting shows.

Mr. Hart, who lived in Lincoln Park, died Jan. 4 following a fall in which he hit his head. He was 81.

In 1981 Mr. Hart played an old Jewish merchant who hides an Irish revolutionary played by actor Aidan Quinn in a production of "The Irish Hebrew Lesson" at Pary.

In 1990 he was cast by Edward Albee in a Touchstone Theatre production of “Tiny Alice" and in 1992 he was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for his role in Touchstone's production of Eugene O’Neill's “A Moon for the Misbegotten.”

Mr. Hart also had a long career as a sound engineer for the ad agency Leo Burnett Worldwide.

Mr. Hart was born May 19, 1944, and grew up in Wyoming before coming to Chicago to attend the Goodman School of Drama, where he met his future wife, Pat Hart, a costume designer who died in 2011.

"On top of all his talents, he was just the kindest, sweetest man," Pyskacek said this week.

"I loved my father dearly, I loved traveling with him, we traveled to Paris in 2016 and Italy two years ago and I just saw him at Christmas and New Year's and I already miss him very deeply," said his son, Michael Hart.

A celebration of life is being planned.