Joseph Leland Stearns

Joseph Leland Stearns (Joey growing up and Joe to friends), beloved son, nephew, cousin, uncle, husband, friend, and artistic collaborator, died October 30, 2026, at age 52. He was born on January 27, 1974, at Hutzel Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, to Margery Brown Stearns Krevsky Dosey and Joseph L. Stearns III. He proudly wore his Detroit hat despite living in Chicago for three decades.

Joe was baptized at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, and celebrated his bar mitzvah at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, Michigan.

Music, art, and travel captured Joe’s imagination early in his childhood in Michigan. He spent his summers at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, played with the Maudes as a teenager, and went to Russia as an exchange student in 1990. Music connected Joe with many of his closest friends. One afternoon after school in 1988, a classmate spotted Joe’s T-shirt and asked, “Hey, that’s Dead Kennedys, right?” Joe mumbled “Yeah” and walked off. One word was apparently enough. They became friends, started a band with Joe on guitar, and kept playing together for years.

Joe attended Detroit Country Day and graduated from Groves High School in Birmingham, Michigan, in 1992. He then headed to Chicago to study theater at Columbia College under the legendary Sheldon Patinkin. He put that training to work in Chicago’s growing storefront theater scene, co-founding Signal Ensemble Theatre with Ronan Marra and Christopher Prentice. Early productions of Much Ado About Nothing, Catch-22, and Waiting for Godot drew critical praise, and the ensemble grew into a tight-knit family. When Signal moved into its home at 1801 W. Berenice, it opened with Marra’s musical about the Rolling Stones, with Joe as Keith Richards. Joe earned a Jeff Award and used his time at Signal to champion new plays, including REDBUD, which he helped bring to Chicago audiences.

Jon Steinhagen, Joe’s friend and fellow Signal Ensemble Theatre member, wrote multiple roles for him. The first was Duke in Signal’s production of the comedy ACES, which had Joe disco dancing through a deafening nightclub scene and yelling, “IT’S QUIETER UP HERE!” These days, we like to picture Joe up there plugging in his guitar. So much for quiet.

Joe met his future wife, Elizabeth (Liz) Bagby, when they played twins in The Comedy of Errors. They went on to work on some twenty productions together, with Signal as well as Sansculottes, Strange Tree, and Right Brain Project. Offstage, they made their home in Lincoln Square with their adored cat Arthur.

After Signal closed its doors in 2015, Joe continued to perform and understudy with companies including First Folio and Lifeline. He also served on the executive leadership team at Productions Plus. When COVID shut down live performance, he took the conversation to a microphone, hosting a podcast for Productions Plus about the acting business.

An able musician and a big-voiced singer, Joe kept playing in Chicago, joining theater friends to play covers with the Regrets. His taste ran from classical to punk, with a particular affection for music best enjoyed dressed in black. Talking with Joe could take you just as far. A conversation about Shakespeare or Japanese art at a museum could turn into a discussion of Star Wars, comic books, or a favorite martial arts movie. Joe practiced aikido himself.

Joe was a certified sommelier, so you could trust him to choose the wine. The popcorn was another matter. He liked his with soy sauce. And if you ever wondered what to get him for his birthday, the answer was a black T-shirt. Yes, he already had one. That was beside the point.

Joe loved a day outdoors with a fly rod in hand, especially if it ended with something on the grill. His mother’s family cabin in Pennsylvania was one of his favorite places. In his last year, his travels gave him time with people he loved. He celebrated his birthday in Key West with aunts and uncles and joined the Brown sibling reunion at the Lodge that summer. He visited the Krevsky family in Harrisburg, cheered on his nephew at his graduation from Christopher Newport University in Virginia, and spent time with his Dad in Michigan. He saw Shakespeare at Stratford with his Mom and got back together with his Signal friends in North Carolina. His family and friends are grateful for those visits and for the ordinary pleasure of having Joe there.

Joe is survived by his wife, Elizabeth (Liz) Bagby, of Chicago. He is also survived by his mother, Margery Brown Stearns Krevsky Dosey, and stepfather, Michael Dosey, of Ypsilanti, Michigan, and by his father, Joseph L. Stearns III, and stepmother, Patty, of Troy, Michigan. His stepsister, Annie (Dosey) Lynch, and her husband, Eric Lynch, also survive him. Joe also leaves behind a beloved extended family, including his cousins, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, as well as dear friends across the country. Among those friends are Ronan Marra, Aaron Goldner, Kevin Osteimer, Colby Sellers, Paul Brodhead, Sean Rhyee, and Charles Schoenherr, who counted Joe as a brother. Joe counted them as his brothers, too.

Joe was preceded in death by his stepfather, Seymour Krevsky, and his paternal grandparents, Joseph L. Stearns Jr. and Nell Stearns. He was also preceded in death by his maternal grandparents, Dr. John L. Brown and Jane Brown of Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. Joe was their eldest grandson.

We’ll miss the way a conversation with Joe could go anywhere, the sound of his guitar, and the laugh that came when he caught you off guard. We’ll be telling his stories for years. Some will make us cry, and some will make us laugh before we even get to the good part. How lucky we were to be there for those stories in the first place.

An open house in Joe’s memory will be held on Sunday, November 22, 2026, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the home of Patty and Joe Stearns in Troy, Michigan.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, December 3, 2026, at Gedon Funeral Home, 121 W. Main Street, Lock Haven, PA 17745. The service will be livestreamed for those unable to attend in person. Interment will follow at Rest Haven Memorial Park.

A Chicago tribute is planned around Joe’s January 27 birthday, with the date to be announced.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Joe’s memory may be made to Theatre Harrisburg. www.theatreharrisburg.com