Generation Next 1999-2001. Published a series of comedy profiles of young adults partying to excess in local bars ("Drunk of the Month" series) and a series of reviews of l bars and coffee shops told in story format under the pseudonym Frank O'Sullivan. Washington D.C.
GAB Magazine Chicago 1998. Published two stories under the pseudonym Frank O'Sullivan about visiting a now closed gay video store and an affair with a young man from Mexico that started with a chance meeting on Halsted Street in Boystown. These stories are in my archives and I may repurpose them for a development of a set of stories about my adventures in self-disco
9very in Chicago after graduating college.
9very in Chicago after graduating college.
"On the surface, Wiener Sausage: The Musical! is a fun and silly parody of life, love, sex, politics and war, although I think that a deeper message resonates beneath it all," said Kate Nelson.
"Kate Nelson .... has the voice of an angel and throws herself into her role with puckish good humor," wrote DC Theater Scene.
Wiener Sausage: The Musical! (Co-Writer, Producer, Director for the Stage)
The story of Wiener Sausage the Musical is based on actual events and interweaves physics, economic theory, energy politics, war, and philosophy sketch comedy and Americana into a book that one critic called "putrid."
Paul Mackie and I (pictured left) created this rock opera about war, renewables, love, and other such things for the Capital Fringe Festival in 2008. A smash hit for the Fringe, the show sold out every night.
Wiener Sausage: The Musical still lives at www.wienersausagethemusicalreturns.com. I was the executive producer and director of the Fringe production, and Paul was the musical director and developed the marketing and branding materials.
Wiener Sausage: The Musical is under development for a re-release with the book and score updated to correspond with revisions in the historical time line, likely do the the interventions of time pranksters.
Paul Mackie and I (pictured left) created this rock opera about war, renewables, love, and other such things for the Capital Fringe Festival in 2008. A smash hit for the Fringe, the show sold out every night.
Wiener Sausage: The Musical still lives at www.wienersausagethemusicalreturns.com. I was the executive producer and director of the Fringe production, and Paul was the musical director and developed the marketing and branding materials.
Wiener Sausage: The Musical is under development for a re-release with the book and score updated to correspond with revisions in the historical time line, likely do the the interventions of time pranksters.
"[Wiener Sausage: The Musical!] portrays a corrupt world in which people in power are consumed by their appetites, whether they be for wealth, political power, sex…or sausage. In the end it has an uplifting message — that love conquers all and innocence will reemerge in the world." Actress Kate Nelson in an interview with DC Theater Scene.
Oldies on the Rocks (Writer, Producer for the Stage)
Oldies in the Rocks is about coming of age in the late 90's. The cold war, over. The era of Seinfeld, on. A decade about nothing. Over the course of a senior prom night infused with drugs and alcohol, the characters drunkenly try to figure out what they are--caught in a cycle of yearning for self-realization and living with self-abuse. They are members of generation suspended in a frenetic middle stage between the repression of the previous generation and the coming of a new normal. As the evening degenerates into an incoherent after party, the characters muck about in the moral gray space of an endless party designed to quiet their anxiousness. A reading of an updated script is in planning.
Oldies in the Rocks is about coming of age in the late 90's. The cold war, over. The era of Seinfeld, on. A decade about nothing. Over the course of a senior prom night infused with drugs and alcohol, the characters drunkenly try to figure out what they are--caught in a cycle of yearning for self-realization and living with self-abuse. They are members of generation suspended in a frenetic middle stage between the repression of the previous generation and the coming of a new normal. As the evening degenerates into an incoherent after party, the characters muck about in the moral gray space of an endless party designed to quiet their anxiousness. A reading of an updated script is in planning.
Hotchner Contest Student Winning Play to be Performed Washington University Record April 17, 1997 The Washington University Record reported on the debut of my play about Generation X, told through a series of darkly comic scenes from a liquor infused and drug addled senior prom night. Oldies on the Rocks was first produced by the Performing Arts Department in 1997. I am currently working on a revision of the script and a staged reading leading to a full production in association with KSN Events and Entertainment. From the article: The truth about what really happens on prom night will be laid out like a freshly pressed tux this month in "Oldies on the Rocks," an original play by senior Daniel Sullivan, winner of Washington University's 1996 A.E. Hotchner Playwriting Competition.
From the article: The Sullivan Center is headquartered in a ... in Washington, DC. For Daniel, the Center has become a full-time job: he dedicates his days to doing research, corresponding with civilian and governmental scientific experts, and trying to bring toxic exposures to the attention of members of Congress and the general public. "We need to acknowledge [the] toxic exposures in the Middle East theater of operations, and that the diseases service members get afterwards are almost irrefutably connected to what they were exposed to," he says. "If you were exposed to these chemicals, it’s going to have an impact on your health, and it needs to be acknowledged, monitored, and treated."
During a five year period of heavy drinking, my friend Paul Mackie and I wrote and then produced a rock opera in the 2008 Capital Fringe Festival. This is one of the last great products of my drinking life before I threw in the towel and sobered up. Wiener Sausage as originally conceived and executed is meant to be enjoyed in a certain spirit. The show sold out every night! Paul and I plan to revise and re-develop it in a more coherent state than that in which it was conceived while staying true to its origins on the cocktail napkins of the Town House Tavern on R Street NW. From the review: There was something, I don’t know, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland about the whole thing, in the sprit of , “Hey, kids, I know, let’s put on a show.” That is, if the show happened to feature characters (2) who had male and female sexual organs, a mad scientist who donned a spectacular purple vinyl something or other and precipitated pretty much the end of the world … It was all kind of a hoot … People lined up to the next door Mexican restaurant to get in. The show was sold out.
This multimedia video, text, and photographic coverage by journalist Katie Drummond is window into the political and scientific complexities of health problems associated with exposure to fumes from burning refuse during war time and some of the work of the Sullivan Center, of which I was then executive director. The video (left) includes an interview of me starting at minute 6:39.
This public radio feature was inspired by a story reporter Raphaella Bennin saw me tell at one of SpeakeasyDC's Tuesday shows at Town nightclub. The story was about my time as a tour guide in Arlington Cemetery, struggles of sexual identity discussed with my brother Tom in the late 90s, and the juxtaposition with burying him there many years later while finding inspiration with his courageous approach to life. Raphaella's story covers my journey with my family to understand the illnesses that claimed Tom's life after his deployment to Iraq.
Speakeasy Storycast Podcast Before God and Country June 2011
In June 2011, during pride week in D.C., I told a story on stage at Woolly Mammoth Theater with SpeakeasyDC about being closeted in tensely homophobic situation during a summer job raisFfing flags on the roof of the US Capitol Building From the post: Dan's friend Charlie comes to his rescue in the face of an office bully. Told live on the SpeakeasyDC stage and posted today in honor of National Coming Out Day. The theme of the night was "Don't Ask, Do Tell: Stories about Coming Out, Coming Clean, and Just Plain Coming" during Capital Pride Week 2011. Subscribe to the Speakeasy Storycast thru iTunes or use http://speakeasystorycast.com/rss.
In June 2011, during pride week in D.C., I told a story on stage at Woolly Mammoth Theater with SpeakeasyDC about being closeted in tensely homophobic situation during a summer job raisFfing flags on the roof of the US Capitol Building From the post: Dan's friend Charlie comes to his rescue in the face of an office bully. Told live on the SpeakeasyDC stage and posted today in honor of National Coming Out Day. The theme of the night was "Don't Ask, Do Tell: Stories about Coming Out, Coming Clean, and Just Plain Coming" during Capital Pride Week 2011. Subscribe to the Speakeasy Storycast thru iTunes or use http://speakeasystorycast.com/rss.
This public radio feature was inspired by a story reporter Raphaella Bennin saw me tell at one of SpeakeasyDC's Tuesday shows at Town nightclub. The story was about my time as a tour guide in Arlington Cemetery, struggles of sexual identity discussed with my brother Tom in the late 90s, and the juxtaposition with burying him there many years later while finding inspiration with his courageous approach to life. Raphaella's story covers my journey with my family to understand the illnesses that claimed Tom's life after his deployment to Iraq.
Daniel Sullivan visits his brothers grave - Raphaella Bennin
Man Takes Lessons From Brother's Life And Mysterious Death WAMU 88.5 Metro Connection
From the article: Tom Sullivan ran at life full force. His brother Dan approached decisions with deliberation and caution, so it wasn't uncommon for Tom to jab at Dan, telling him, "Stop being a wimp. Just go out and do things!"
From the article: Tom Sullivan ran at life full force. His brother Dan approached decisions with deliberation and caution, so it wasn't uncommon for Tom to jab at Dan, telling him, "Stop being a wimp. Just go out and do things!"
Landlords Accused of Rejecting Vouchers in Equal Rights Center Investigation Washington Post April 11, 2005 In 2005, this Post story covered an investigation of discrimination against section 8 housing voucher holders in Washington, D.C. I developed and directed this investigation when serving as Director of Enforcement at The Equal Rights Center, a national nonprofit center dedicated to public awareness about and private enforcement of local, state, and federal civil rights laws. Housing vouchers enable low income renters to secure safe, fair market value apartments for their families as an alternative to public housing. The investigation and subsequent enforcement action increased the rate at which voucher holders were able to secure homes in D.C. and led to nearly one million dollars in recovered damages that were re-invested by the Center and its partners in education, enforcement, and legal services for victims of discriminatory housing practices. From the article: In 26 percent of the cases, the testers were told that vouchers -- formerly known as Section 8 vouchers -- were not an acceptable form of payment, said Dan Sullivan, director of enforcement for the center. In 35 percent of the cases, testers were told they would be turned away for other reasons -- because a building was not taking any more voucher holders, for example, or because the applicant did not earn enough to qualify for the apartment without the federal subsidy.
Letter to the Editor of Washington Post on Subject: Mourner Died Communion / published March 3, 2012 I wrote and submitted a letter to the Post after reading an article about a lesbian who was denied communion by a priest at her mother's funeral in a church in Maryland. The letter was published in the "Letters to the Editor" section by the Post on March 3, 2012. Text of the published letter: I am a 37-year-old, gay, non-practicing Catholic. At times I consider returning to the church because I miss the sense of meaning it gave me when I was younger, but the church’s teaching that homosexuality is intrinsically disordered made me feel like an outsider and was a key factor in my decision to stop going. I have not had the experience of a priest refusing me the wafer in public, but that rejection is one I feel palpably whenever I find myself in a church at a wedding or funeral and the priest announces the closed-Communion policy, wherein only Catholics in good standing can participate. I feel as if he is talking directly at me, the intrinsically disordered one. Many lapsed Catholics take Communion at weddings and funerals, but this article helped me firm up my position. I will not take Communion again until the church changes its policy. Jesus invited everybody, outsiders especially, to His table. Daniel F. Sullivan, Washington
Ricky Carlot / The Washington Post
Family of Deceased Iraq Veteran Founds Nonprofit Center to Research Unexplained Illnesses Washington Post May 25, 2014 After my brother died in 2009, my family founded an organization in his memory to raise funds for research, advocacy, and public awareness about post-deployment illnesses - physical ailments t. My brother was a Marine who deployed to post-9/11 Iraq, became ill afterwards, and died at age 30. After years of investigation and research, including networking with other families undergoing similar situations, we came to understand that environmental exposures associated with war in this region have been highly associated with severe illness that our government agencies are very slow to acknowledge and treat these illnesses as a result of a tragic gridlock in which scientific progress is stalled by an effort to conserve resources within complex bureaucracies. I directed the organization we co-founded as its President and CEO from 2011 to 2015, increasing support from $60,000 annually to $260,000 in 2014, hiring staff, and providing pilot research grants to highly regarded institutions. From the article: 'When all these folks started coming back from the Persian Gulf War with weird symptoms, a kind of narrative was created to explain these symptoms as being psychosomatic,” he [Dan Sullivan] said. 'And when my brother came back and a lot of these other folks came back, they were put into that story. 'That narrative is damaging. Military service [is] an occupation with lots of environmental, toxic hazards, not just bullets.'
