But his expansive personality and deep curiosity about the lives of others created a larger family throughout Chicago theater. The creative and personal connections Ehrmann forged over three decades working on local stages are emblematic of the best ways that Chicago\u2019s theater scene, as fraught as it can be, is also often a beautiful and irreplaceable foundation for love, community, and great performances.<\/p>\n
Though Ehrmann had become known in recent years for his recurring roles on Chicago Fire and Chicago Justice as Deputy District Chief Joel Tiberg, who runs the training academy, his real love was working onstage. Ehrmann wasn\u2019t a native of Chicago. He grew up in New Jersey and studied theater at New York University\u2014DeFrancesco told me that the legendary acting teacher Stella Adler was one of his mentors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a lot of great teachers and I think that\u2019s where he figured out it\u2019s being an artist, but there is also the craft of it where you\u2019re like, \u2018OK, we gotta put this thing together,\u2019\u201d said DeFrancesco. \u201cEverybody\u2019s working in concert for this one goal and how do you do your part in the best way possible to serve the play? And he was always about serving the play, helping the person across from him get where they needed to go so they could both get there together, and having them help him.\u201d<\/p>\n
His decision to move to Chicago about 30 years ago was simple, DeFrancesco said: \u201cHe heard this is a great theater town and he fell in love with it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Godbaby-Reagan-photo-by-Geoffrey-Fingerhut.jpg\")
Kurt Ehrmann (center) as Ronald Reagan in Defiant Theatre\u2019s 2000 production of Christopher Johnson\u2019s Godbaby, flanked by Justin Fletcher as Jerry Falwell (L) and David Skvarla as Mikhael Gorbachev (R)<\/b> Credit: Geoffrey Fingerhut<\/p>\n
Chicago theaters fell in love with Ehrmann, too. His long list of credits included performances with Defiant Theatre, House Theatre of Chicago, and Apple Tree (all three are now defunct), as well as Lifeline, Steppenwolf, Court, and Chicago Shakespeare. But his performances with the Hypocrites gave him his greatest acclaim and a lifelong circle of friends and collaborators.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Hypocrites, founded by director Sean Graney in 1997, became known for high-octane takes on classics. Ehrmann was with the company from the beginning (the Hypocrites stopped producing after 2018). Among his many memorable performances were as Dr. Dysart, the psychiatrist for a troubled young man in Peter Shaffer\u2019s Equus in 2004; as the blind autocratic Hamm in Samuel Beckett\u2019s Endgame (2015); and as the diabolical Roy Cohn in Angels in America (2006). <\/p>\n
Playing oily or domineering figures seemed to come easy to Ehrmann, who also played Ronald Reagan in Defiant Theatre\u2019s 2000 production of Christopher Johnson\u2019s Godbaby and the, well, hypocritical JJ Peachum in the Hypocrites\u2019 2008 production of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill\u2019s The Threepenny Opera. To me, Ehrmann was always the guy onstage who seemed caught between the urge to break into a laugh or a tirade, if only the right provocation presented itself.<\/p>\n
Actor and fellow Hypocrites ensemble member Mechelle Moe told me that Ehrmann \u201chas been one of my dearest friends my entire adult life. I think we probably met when I was 25-ish. The qualities he had as someone to make theater with is very much who he was as a person, I think. While our friendship was very much forged with the Hypocrites and theatermaking, I consider Kurt my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, Moe (who is now a company member with TimeLine Theatre) officiated at the wedding of Ehrmann and DeFrancesco in 2018. She shared her remarks from that ceremony with me, in which she provided a bulleted list of facts about Ehrmann. \u201cKurt can be loud. He can be gruff. He loves a good debate, almost to a fault. He is fiercely devoted to his loved ones. He is extremely generous. He often puts others before himself. He feels deeply. And he is full of so much love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moe also noted to me that she and Ehrmann played husband-and-wife several times onstage for the Hypocrites, including in Graney\u2019s 2003 acclaimed revival<\/a> of Sophie Treadwell\u2019s expressionist feminist classic, Machinal. \u201cI would not have had the performance I had if he was not the person that offered me absolute trust and safety and space, and also was able to pull me back from very difficult places. At the same time he was offering a very beautiful performance that didn\u2019t get the same accolades that mine did, but fully deserved it. [Moe won a non-Equity Jeff Award for her performance.] His part was so crucial in that.\u201d<\/p>\n Moe and Ehrmann also played a married couple in Graney\u2019s 2007 staging of Eug\u00e8ne Ionesco\u2019s The Bald Soprano. Ehrmann was a big fan of the Romanian-French playwright, having also appeared in Graney\u2019s 2002 production of Rhinoceros. (Reader critic Jack Helbig\u2019s review<\/a> noted, \u201cKurt Ehrmann is especially good as an annoying bourgeois fussbudget who finds himself, during a rather routine conversation with the would-be hero\u2014played superbly by Robert McLean\u2014snorting and stamping and yearning to gallop free through the streets.\u201d)<\/p>\n McLean, another longtime friend and collaborator of Ehrmann\u2019s, told me they met in 1993, when Ehrmann came to see an evening of one-acts at the legendary (and long-gone) Cafe Voltaire basement theater in Lakeview where McLean was performing. \u201cHe was still in New York, but he came in to see it. We had one conversation on the curb after and I guess he decided he liked me then, but that was a one-off meeting. And then years later, our paths crossed again. I saw him in a play out at Oak Park Festival Theatre and we again spent a lot of time talking. And then a few years after that, we found ourselves in the chorus of Ajax [produced by the Hypocrites in 2001] together. And that\u2019s when we really became friends.\u201d<\/p>\n McLean and Jennifer Grace, another former ensemble member of the Hypocrites who performed in Ajax, also found a steadfast and loving pillar of support in Ehrmann when they both lost their spouses. McLean\u2019s wife, Hypocrites actor Erin Myers, died of cancer at 41 in 2015. Grace moved to New York in 2009 with the Hypocrites\u2019 landmark production (directed by David Cromer) of Thornton Wilder\u2019s Our Town, with her husband, actor Tom Bateman. (The two met while performing together in the Hypocrites\u2019 2002 production of Federico Garc\u00eda Lorca\u2019s Blood Wedding.) Bateman also died in 2015. Ehrmann and DeFrancesco are godparents to Bateman and Grace\u2019s son, Emmett.\u00a0<\/p>\n Grace, who recently moved back to Chicago after living in California for several years after Bateman\u2019s death, told me about the many ways Ehrmann stood up for her and her family. \u201cHe married my husband and I. He was so excited when he found out we were having a baby and he came out and introduced us to Gianine when my son was born, when we were still in New York. And when Tom died, he was one of the first people there. And he stayed for a long time. He went with me to pick up Tom\u2019s ashes, because he knew I couldn\u2019t do it by myself.\u201d<\/p>\n McLean and Grace were both with DeFrancesco at the hospital when Ehrmann died. \u201cI immediately apologized to them, like, \u2018This has to be so hard for you,\u2019\u201d said DeFrancesco. \u201cHe\u2019s one of their best friends, of course, but you can\u2019t help but relive the pain of what they went through, and it\u2019s just terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n DeFrancesco met Ehrmann after she performed in a production of Harold Pinter\u2019s Old Times at City Lit Theater in 2009 with Ehrmann\u2019s friend Don Bender.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe saw it and was very complimentary and I thought, \u2018Oh, he\u2019s really cute.\u2019 And then I saw him a couple more times, like at Konak\u2019s [the Andersonville bar is popular with Chicago theater artists] and whatever. I thought that if I saw him again, if nothing clicks this time, I\u2019ll be like, \u2018OK, he\u2019s not interested.\u2019\u201d But DeFrancesco recalls that as soon as she saw him at the bar again, \u201cHe turned around and I saw the look on his face and I\u2019m like, \u2018OK.\u2019\u201d\u00a0They went on a date the next week and quickly became a couple.<\/p>\n Despite being his actual wife, DeFrancesco (who now works primarily as a pilates instructor) never shared time onstage with Ehrmann. But they shared a large circle of friends and theatrical passions. She told me that, on their European honeymoon, they went to Paris and Ehrmann insisted on seeing Th\u00e9\u00e2tre de la Huchette\u2019s production of The Bald Soprano, which holds the record for the longest continually running show in history. She also had a first-row seat to his preparation process for roles over the years.<\/p>\n \u201cHe really relished the investigation of it, both just the research and the process of it and working and trying to polish it up, like figure out, \u2018Where are we at?\u2019 Really continuing to mine and mine and mine until you really found the answers, or what you thought were the answers, in the play. That\u2019s what made him really happy, I think, doing that kind of work. And so his approach was very exacting, but it was also very free.\u201d<\/p>\n Among her favorite performances of Ehrmann\u2019s, DeFrancesco cites Endgame with the Hypocrites, but also an out-of-town production. In 2012, Ehrmann played Ahab in Syracuse Stage\u2019s production of Moby Dick (adapted by Julian Rad from Herman Melville\u2019s epic novel and directed by Peter Amster). And while Ahab is notable for his missing leg, Ehrmann had an extra obstacle to overcome: he was hit by a car while walking to the store during tech week and broke his elbow in six places. DeFrancesco said, \u201cThat Monday, he had surgery, and then he was in a cast, and they gave him a sling, and then they canceled that Wednesday night performance, and he went back onstage that Thursday.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Grace recalled a Hypocrites production of Lanford Wilson\u2019s Balm in Gilead in 2003 in which both she and Ehrmann were part of the large cast. \u201cHe played one of the cooks at the diner, and I played Ann, the prostitute. He created this whole backstory that he shared with me later. And he was like, \u2018My whole thing was that I was in love with you. So you would come into the diner and I just was always looking out for you. And whenever you left, you know, I knew you were going to work, and I was worried about you.\u2019 He was really great about filling in the gaps in the story to make real connections that were designed to support other people, but not overshadow people.\u201d<\/p>\n Grace also noted, \u201cKurt was an only child. And I think he was looking for his siblings, and he was really good at adopting younger siblings in particular. Like he called me and Mechelle his little sisters. And I think that actually is true in the way that he drove me bonkers sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n Everyone I spoke with, and so many other people paying tribute to Ehrmann on social media, noted his endless enthusiasm for everything that caught his interest outside of theater, including music, art, and politics. McLean said, \u201cHe loved to be excited about something, and he was curious and wanted to know more about it. And he was also just so funny and had a very sardonic sense of humor, which I very much appreciate.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n McLean also recalls taking a road trip with Ehrmann to New Orleans a couple of years ago. \u201cWe drove and so the halfway point was Memphis. And he had heard about Stax Records. He had such a deep love of music on vinyl, which has rubbed off on me. He\u2019s now got me into an expensive hobby, so thanks for that, I guess. Stax has this music academy attached to it that I think delighted him\u2014that those two things were connected and existed together.\u201d<\/p>\n DeFrancesco said that while Ehrmann\u2019s taste in music was broad, funk was his all-time favorite. So it seems fitting that his family is asking that memorial contributions be made to the Stax Music Academy<\/a>. She also noted that the outpouring of grief and love on Facebook and elsewhere has been comforting\u2014even though Ehrmann refused to participate in social media.<\/p>\n \u201cI do wish he could see how many people just thought he was brilliant onstage, brilliant in real life, and appreciated his deep friendship and loyalty. It\u2019s just nice to see,\u201d said DeFrancesco. \u201cBecause it\u2019s like, \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s my husband. That\u2019s who I fell in love with.\u2019 And everybody saw that too. And I knew that people felt that way before he passed. But it is really nice to to see that. And it\u2019s not even cold comfort. It\u2019s comfort. We have a wonderful community here.\u201d<\/p>\n Reader Recommends: THEATER & DANCE<\/p>\n Reader reviews of Chicago theater, dance, comedy, and performance arts.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tSasha Gerritson\u2019s revival for Music Theater Works deserves a longer run.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\tAugust 17, 2026August 17, 2026\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tRJ Silva\u2019s comedy offers sweetness and a sturdy message of self-acceptance.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\tAugust 17, 2026August 18, 2026\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tThree generations of women confront inherited trauma in Alice Birch\u2019s play with Metal Shop Performance Lab and JunkHeart Theatre.\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\tAugust 17, 2026August 20, 2026\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tRyn Hardiman explores the struggle to find healthcare as \u201ca girl with an asterisk.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\tAugust 12, 2026August 12, 2026\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/The-Hypocrites-085.jpg\")
Kurt Ehrmann and Mechelle Moe in Eug\u00e8ne Ionesco\u2019s The Bald Soprano (2007)<\/b> Credit: Paul Metreyeon<\/a><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_1329.jpeg\")
Kurt Ehrmann and his wife, Gianine DeFrancesco, with their godson, Emmett Grace Bateman<\/b> Credit: Photo courtesy of Jennifer Grace<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Syracuse-Moby-Kurt_websocial.jpg\")
Kurt Ehrmann played Captain Ahab in Syracuse Stage\u2019s 2012 production of Moby Dick.<\/b> Credit: Courtesy Syracuse Stage<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787463155_342_image0.jpeg\")
Kurt Ehrmann (L), Jennifer Grace, and Steven Wilson in the Hypocrites\u2019 2003 production of Lanford Wilson\u2019s Balm in Gilead<\/b> Credit: Margaret Lakin<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image1-1.jpeg\")
Kurt Ehrmann (L) and Sara Sevigny in the Hypocrites\u2019 2008 production of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill\u2019s The Threepenny Opera<\/b> Credit: Margaret Lakin<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n