John Sullivan has been an editor and writer for newspapers, magazines, and websites on both coasts since the 1980s, including the New York Daily News, the San Francisco Chronicle, and an online start-up for the Wall Street Journal. He resides on his ranch in Northern California.

Program 3, SF Ballet

Dance February 28, 2015 San Francisco, CA

There’s something of a puppeteer at play in “Manifesto,” Myles Thatcher’s impressive new work for San Francisco Ballet. Dancers emerge airily from the wings, as if suspended from invisible strings, gliding in and out in patterns symmetrical or not, their ...

Two Debuts in One ‘Giselle,’ SF Ballet

Dance February 2, 2015 San Francisco, CA

Like Odette/Odile in “Swan Lake,” the title role in “Giselle” requires not only technical mastery but also (and more crucially) the ability to create two distinct visions onstage. In “Giselle,” the duty is even more burdensome: unlike Odette/Odile in “Swan ...

The Rise of ISIS, PBS Frontline

Television October 27, 2014

Sometimes a good documentary merely confirms what is generally feared to be true. But as any government official (or journalist) will acknowledge, confirmation is not an easy task. Layers of nuance and obfuscation have to be scrubbed away before the ...

Partenope, SF Opera

Music October 19, 2014 San Francisco, CA

Near the end of Act I of this decidedly comic British production of “Partenope,” in its company premiere at San Francisco Opera, a breeze wafts through an open window, billowing the diaphanous curtain in seductive swirls. That undulating fabric is ...

The Trouble with Antibiotics, PBS Frontline

Television October 13, 2014

While America frets over a potential Ebola outbreak in Texas, another crisis already plagues the country's health-care system: bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics are cropping up in hospitals nationwide. These superbugs infect more than 2 million patients annually, ...