Sullivan was born in Wray, Colorado, the son of Mary Catherine (née Hutton) and John Martin Sullivan.[1] He was raised in San Francisco, where he graduated from San Francisco State University. In 1963, he began his professional career as an actor at the city's Actor's Workshop, where he remained for two years.
After two years as Resident Director of the Seattle Repertory Theatre, he assumed the position of Artistic Director in 1981, serving until 1997. It was there that he directed the first production of his own play, Inspecting Carol.[3]
Sullivan has forged successful working relationships with many prominent American playwrights. He directed Herb Gardner's Tony winning I'm Not Rappaport at Seattle Rep before staging it off-Broadway, on Broadway, in London's West End, and the United States national tour. He reteamed with Gardner to stage Conversations with My Father in Seattle, New York City, and Los Angeles. His first association with Wendy Wasserstein was the Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning The Heidi Chronicles, which he directed off Broadway, on Broadway and its National Tour. The duo later collaborated on The Sisters Rosensweig on Broadway and the National Tour, An American Daughter, and Ms. Wasserstein's final play, Third. He directed both the off-Broadway and screen version of Jon Robin Baitz's The Substance of Fire, as well as the original productions of A Fair Country and Ten Unknowns in New York, and Baitz's translation of Hedda Gabler in Los Angeles. His collaborations with Donald Margulies include the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Dinner With Friends in New York and Los Angeles, the Broadway revival of Sight Unseen, and the Broadway productions of Brooklyn Boy and the 2010 Broadway production of Time Stands Still.
Sullivan has directed most of Charlayne Woodard's plays: Pretty Fire (Seattle Rep, 1994-95),Neat (Seattle Rep, 1996–97), Stories (Seattle Rep, May 1999),[4]In Real Life (Mark Taper Forum, July 2001 and Manhattan Theatre Club, October 2002)[5] and The Nightwatcher.
At The Old Globe Theatre, Sullivan directed Julius Caesar, Cymbeline (1999),[9]Romeo and Juliet (1998),[10]Merry Wives of Windsor and Othello, and at South Coast Repertory he directed Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Taming of the Shrew and Volpone.
^Hischak, Thomas S. "Daniel Sullivan", Enter the Playmakers: Directors and Choreographers on the New York Stage, Scarecrow Press, 2006, ISBN0810857472, p. 125
