Sullivan was born in
Wray, Colorado, the son of Mary Catherine (née Hutton) and John Martin Sullivan. 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. Sullivan worked as both an actor and director with the
Lincoln Center Repertory Company in the late 1960s and 1970s. His directorial debut there was
A. R. Gurney's
Scenes from American Life in 1971. for which he won a
Drama Desk Award. Following 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. 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),
In Real Life (Mark Taper Forum, July 2001 and Manhattan Theatre Club, October 2002) and
The Nightwatcher. Other Broadway credits include
Retreat From Moscow, ''
Morning's at Seven, Proof, Major Barbara, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Accent on Youth
, The Homecoming, Rabbit Hole, Prelude to a Kiss
, After The Night And The Music
, Julius Caesar
, and Ah, Wilderness!. For Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte, Sullivan directed The Merry Wives of Windsor
, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(2007) and Twelfth Night'' (2009). Other Off-Broadway credits include
Stuff Happens,
Intimate Apparel,
Ancestral Voices,
Spinning into Butter,
Far East,
London Suite,
Psychopathia Sexualis,
The American Clock, and
Good People. At The
Old Globe Theatre, Sullivan directed
Julius Caesar,
Cymbeline (1999),
Romeo and Juliet (1998),
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''. Sullivan's Broadway acting credits include the 1973 revival of
A Streetcar Named Desire,
The Merchant of Venice (1973),
The Playboy of the Western World (1971),
The Good Person of Szechwan, and
Camino Real. In addition to his directing, Sullivan currently holds the Swanlund Chair at the
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. ==Personal life==