The loss of Mr. Graham comes six months after the Rep's associate artistic director Susan Gregg, 65, died in her home in July 2009.
Their sudden deaths have left the tight-knit staff shaken.
Steve Woolf, the Rep's artistic director, told Playbill.com, "Brad's hallmarks were is absolute love of the theatre and all of the people that were involved in making theatre art. He was also responsible for all things electronic relating to the theatre. His work on our website was brilliant from design to ease of manipulation. How he was able to work with the social networking sites to our advantage took a real connection to the future of communications.
"His contribution to the Rep in all of these areas was enormous and there was so much more on the horizon that he was dreaming of, that it is hard to consider that he won't be here to be part what's next and new."
Mr. Graham's passion was the internet, and he is credited with coining the term "blogosphere." His website, The Bradlands, which he launched in 1998, had many fans and readers. He is considered a pioneer in the blogging community. Mr. Graham was in his tenth season as public relations manager for The Rep, a job that encompasses media relations, a variety of writing assignments, website management, social media marketing and much more. Prior to joining The Rep staff, his professional work experience included three years as marketing director at COCA, various writing and editing jobs at KETC, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Webster-Kirkwood Times, and a large body of work as a free-lance writer and editor. He graduated with a B.A. in Journalism from Webster University in 1991, and taught entertainment journalism at Webster from 2001 through 2006. The Rep is located on the Webster campus.
Mr. Graham was also a long-time participant in the SXSW Interactive Festival, serving since 2005 as the host of the SXSW Baby! blog. Through his blogging and his involvement in SXSW, he built a large circle of friends and colleagues throughout the country.
According to his own bio on bradlands.com, "Brad was born on a Monday morning, Nov. 25, 1968, in a hospital that doesn't exist any longer in Hannibal, Missouri. A few days later, I decided to move in with my parents, who lived in the nearby town of New London. Today, I live in the historic Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis where I share a three-story 1910 house with my friend Ken, four TiVos, at least five Macintosh computers, and an embarrassingly large collection of DVDs and CDs (largely show tunes and torch singers). After an extremely eclectic professional life that has included stints as a journalist, technical writer, arts administrator and actor/director, I am now the publicist for The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.
"My hobbies include this very website and a newfound interest in video editing, something for which I demonstrated absolutely no talent in college but have recently taken up again. I enjoy traveling and have visited 48 of the United States, been all across Canada and hit a few bits of Europe. Still, I've yet to discover any place other than St. Louis that I'd rather live. I am also fond of reading (mostly non-fiction and that much-maligned form, the literary memoir), dining out with good friends, and all sorts of theatre. "
He is survived by his mother, Mary Jo Graham of New London, MO.
A public memorial will be held 6 PM Jan. 24 at the Rep's home at the Loretto-Hilton Center, 130 Edgar Road Webster Groves, MO.
