Time and time again, MTC Theatregoers ask the question: “What is the role of the Artistic Director?" Administrative Assistant Rebecca Stang decided it was time to find out.   So she went right to the source: Daniel Sullivan, Acting Artistic Director for the 2007-2008 Season, who agreed to shed some light on the subject. From 1981-1997, Daniel served as Artistic Director of Seattle Repertory Theatre, where he directed more than 60 productions. Although this is Daniel’s first season as a member of the MTC staff, he has been a long-time MTC collaborator, directing such acclaimed productions as David Lindsey-Abaire's Rabbit Hole, Donald Margulies's Brooklyn Boy and Sight Unseen, David Auburn's Proof, and John Patrick Shanley's Psychopathia Sexualis.

RS: What are the most important responsibilities of an artistic director? And how does working at MTC differ from your stewardship of Seattle Repertory Theatre?

DS: The duties of an artistic director change from theatre to theatre, depending on what the various MOs of the theatres are. In this case, development of new work is the priority of the institution. My job in Seattle was somewhat more curatorial because we were drawing from the theatre historically, and also in terms of contemporary work. I think an artistic director also has to work responsibly with the executive producer to make sure that there is a financially balanced season, so we are not betting the entire farm on one production. Also, nurturing relationships with all kinds of theatre artists is a primary responsibility.

RS: You mentioned that your principal responsibility at MTC is to find and develop new plays. Why does the idea of developing new work appeal to you?

DS: Very early on in my career as a director, I started working on new work, entirely by accident. I took over a play by A. R. Gurney, about two weeks into rehearsal. It was his first play, and I found that I possessed a kind of editorial talent that I didn’t know I had in terms of working on new work. Since then, it has always been a focus of mine. When I was at Seattle Rep, I started a new play program; we were one of the first in regional theatres to start a serious new play program. So that remains a major focus of my life. And I really just enjoy the company of writers.

RS: Throughout your career, you’ve directed both contemporary and historical works. Are there are any classics that you are dying to direct?

DS: I’ve wanted to sort of work my way through the Shakespeare canon. I’ve done maybe two-thirds so far. I’ve never done a King Lear , I’ve never done a Much Ado About Nothing , I’ve never done a Love’s Labour’s Lost, or a Titus Andronicus . There are a number of plays that I need to get to, not just that I want to. I feel a responsibility to get to them.

RS: What do you love most about theatre?

DS: I love the fact that you get to change your mind when you’re working. I love the fact that you can continue to reexamine the material on a daily basis. I love that you have a freedom in rehearsals to keep thinking about the work right up till the very end, which is a very important thing. I love that you can keep making discoveries through the entire process. I certainly love theatre for all the reasons that people generally love the theatre: the immediacy of it, the fact that it lives in time, and that there are no two performances that are the same. The fact that you can come to see a production and be surprised every time you see it, if the acting is fresh and inventive. It’s like no other formal art form in that way. But I personally just love that you can keep inventing as you go.

RS: Although you have collaborated with MTC for years as a Director, you have only worked inside the MTC offices for the last three months. What is the most surprising thing you have learned about our organization?

DS: I think that the surprise is that the problems are always the same. The surprise is that those problems never change. There are always fiscal problems; there are always problems of schedule. There is always the surprise of actors getting other jobs or new actors becoming available suddenly. It’s a never-ending improvisation. It’s been ten years since I ran a theatre, so I guess I had forgotten a lot of the usual day-to-day elements of the job that have come crashing back on me since I entered Lynne’s office. But it’s a good staff that is extraordinarily helpful, so it has not been, in any way, a difficult transition.

RS: What are the most important qualities of an Artistic Director, for all the wannabe Dan Sullivans and Lynne Meadows out there?

DS: You have to be a workaholic. You have to be able to concentrate for extraordinarily long periods of time on one thing. You have to be an extraordinarily tenacious human being, so that you don’t let go of an idea. You have to keep a hundred different balls in the air, at the same time. And you have to be somewhat immune to criticism. Aside from that, and hopefully a taste for the literature, I don’t think anything else is required.