October 26, 2012
Tom Sullivan is the engineering department manager at Hudson Scenic Studio, a full-service provider of scenery, set electrics and automation equipment and automation control, for all types of live performance. He is also an adjunct professor in the Design/Technology Department at Purchase College.
Prior to that, he was the assistant technical director at the Metropolitan Opera. Sullivan has a degree in fine art (painting) from SUNY Albany and an MFA in technical design and production from the Yale School of Drama. He’s lived in Leonia for 22 years. His wife, Ann Brown Sullivan, an actress and speech pathologist, is a native Leonian. They have two children, Sean and Emily. His father-in-law is longtime Leonian and former ACS teacher Ed Brown.
Q: Where are you from?
A: I grew up in Valhalla, N.Y. in Westchester County, the youngest of three kids.
Q: When did you first develop an interest in theater?
A: I was always a shy kid and had it not been for my sixth grade teacher Sister Judith, who tricked me into joining the school play, I may not have developed an interest in theater. I played the part of Earthquake McGoon in Lil Abner. It was also my first singing role, and I really loved that experience.
Q: Did you continue acting in high school?
A: I was the lead in several musicals at Valhalla High School, including the role of Curly in Oklahoma. I also played trombone in the band and played football. Valhalla High School was similar in size to Leonia High School, so motivated students had opportunities to participate in a variety of extracurricular activities.
Q: When did you see your first Broadway show?
A: When I was 15, my parents took me to see John Cullum in Shenandoah. But it was Sweeney Todd, with Angela Lansbury, that got me hooked on musical theater a few years later. My friends and I often took the train from Westchester to get half-price tickets at TKTS.
Q: Did you pursue theater in college?
A: I started as a business major at the suggestion of my father, but switched to fine arts (painting) in my sophomore year. Although I wasn’t a theater major, a group of us staged our own student productions. I acted and painted sets and later met people in the school’s theater department, many of whom encouraged me to focus on a career that combined my interest in theater and art. That combination felt right.
Q: How did you meet Ann?
A: We met in 1983, after we’d both graduated from college, and were doing summer stock theater at the New London Barn Playhouse in New Hampshire. I was a scenic artist; she was acting – nine shows in 12 weeks. At the end of the summer, she went on tour and I was hired as a scenic artist at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut. I spent my nights as a stagehand and my days painting scenery. We married five years later, in her family’s backyard on Christie Street, after I’d finished grad school.
Q: Are you an opera lover?
A: I developed an appreciation for it over my nine years at the Met. The first opera I ever saw was “Wagner’s Das Reingold,” a three-hour production, sung in German, with no intermission – quite different from a Broadway musical! Unlike Broadway, the Met is a repertory house and all the sets are designed with that in mind. They have sets for as many as three different operas on the stage in a 24-hour period. A set for that day’s rehearsal, a set for that night’s performance and a set for the rehearsal the next day. Their ambitious seasons were challenging and stressful! After nine years there, I can say that although I’m no expert, I do enjoy opera.
Q: What are some of Hudson Scenic’s projects?
A: Hudson’s been doing scenery and automation for about 30 years. Some of their early projects included “Les Miserables,” “Phantom of the Opera,” and “Cats.” When I started as a draftsman, 15 years ago, they were working on “Lion King,” a very technically challenging and cutting edge show at the time. More recently we’ve done “The Color Purple,” “Billy Elliott,” the revival of “South Pacific” and “War Horse” at Lincoln Center, “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” and “Glengarry Glen Ross” and many shows with Manhattan Theatre Club and Roundabout. We’ve also done work with Disney in the parks and on the new cruise line ships.
Q: Are you working on any holiday shows?
A: We’ve built and painted the set for “Elf,” which is going on tour this Christmas season. We also did the scenery for “White Christmas,” and we did the latest version of the “Nutcracker” for the American Ballet Theater. We also did much of the scenery for the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular.” Hudson has also built and automated three versions of the New Year’s Eve Ball for Times Square.
Q: Do you have a family tradition?
A: I’ve celebrated every Christmas Day at our family home in Valhalla. That’s 52 Christmases. My mother still cooks.
Q: Are you involved in any Leonia organizations?
A: Like many parents, most of the volunteer work I’ve done is to support my kids and spend time with them. I’ve coached soccer, baseball, and softball. When my son was cast in Summerstage at Leonia’s production of “Peter Pan,” I volunteered to be on the crew to fly him. I figured if my kid was to hang from the end of a rope, I should be on the other end of it! Ann and I also helped with subsequent Summerstage shows that our kids were part of. She managed the body mics and I helped with scenery and set construction.
Q: Why did you move to Leonia?
A: Ann grew up here, her family was here, and we knew it was a wonderful town. It was an easy commute to Broadway for her and the Metropolitan Opera for me. We knew the schools were good, too. Our kids got a great, well-rounded education in a diverse population. What Leonia doesn’t have, we don’t have to drive far to get.
Q: What do you most like about Leonia?
A: I love things like the Halloween parade. It’s a small town classic and so much fun for both parents and kids. I also appreciate the businesses in town where the owners make you feel welcome. Places like Dantes for good food and Moore’s Hardware, which provides invaluable products and services to do-it-yourselfers like me; Happy Market, where I get my coffee at six every morning and the guys behind the counter are cheerful and welcoming at that early hour; and Faithful Works Gas Station, where I can listen to classical music while the owner Sean, fills my tank and washes my windshield. I do miss Your Place Diner, a hole-in-the-wall on Broad Avenue that I went to on weekends for bacon and eggs.
Q: What advice would you give to Leonia students aspiring to be set designers?
A: The same advice I’d give to any kids. Be open to opportunities, work hard and don’t think any job is beneath you. Don’t sit around waiting for the perfect job to fall in your lap. I’ve been a gift wrapper at a jewelry store, a security guard on a construction site, and a maintenance worker at a factory. None of them were related to theatre and set construction, but they were all valuable experiences and I met people who helped me. Relationships open new doors.
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