Erica Sullivan, coming off a season as Lady Macbeth at OSF, takes on a wrenching role in ‘Gidion’s Knot’ with Rogue Theater Company

By Jim Flint

After seven months of portraying a highly ambitious and manipulative woman who ruthlessly pushes her husband to commit murder to gain power, but later becomes consumed by guilt and descends into madness, actor Erica Sullivan might be expected to enjoy — and deserve — some “me” time, a bit of R&R.

Unfortunately, there is no pause button. Her next role is just as heart-wrenching.

Even before completing her season on Oct. 12 as Lady Macbeth in Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s 2024 production of “Macbeth,” Sullivan was in rehearsal for Rogue Theater Company’s “Gidion’s Knot,” in which she plays a mother coping with grief over the suicide of her 11-year-old son.

The two-hander, also starring Domenique Lozano and directed by fellow OSF alum Terri McMahon, will play Wednesdays through Sundays, Oct. 23 to Nov. 10, at RTC’s performance venue at Grizzly Peak Winery, 1600 E. Nevada St., Ashland.

How did she manage to prepare for “Gidion’s Knot” during a busy schedule at OSF?

“A mug of coffee — or two — and working in the morning hours when my kids were at school,” she said.

The story of “Gidion’s Knot” unfolds in real time, about 80 minutes with no intermission. It explores a mother and a teacher (Lozano) coping with the unimaginable, and discovers during a parent-teacher conference the truth behind their shared grief over the death of the mother’s son, Gidion.

The mother, who had scheduled the conference after her son was suspended from school but before his death, insists on keeping the appointment.

Loss and confrontation

Sullivan finds portraying a character dealing with both loss and confrontation challenging.

“A place of grief and anger is certainly not an easy place to occupy,” Sullivan said.

She credits McMahon, Lozano and stage manager Kimberley Barry with helping make it work.

“The work feels held,” she said. “We release the work together at the end of rehearsal so that the residue doesn’t come home with us to our lives and our families.”

She says the challenge is to be able to go the depths necessary to honor the play.

“A safe rehearsal space is essential, and I feel we have that.”

The golden thread

After an intense and dramatic role at OSF, what attracted her to more of the same in “Gidion’s Knot”?

“I am often drawn to stories that explore the suffering side of being alive, our hardest moments, our worst moments, our most challenging moments,” she said. “I’m not a masochist by any means. Instead, I am drawn to these stories because I am an unapologetic optimist.”

Pollyannish as that may sound, Sullivan says she searches for the golden thread of hope in such stories.

“I’m searching for grace, for compassion,” she said. “If we can look at these stories and these characters grappling with the most difficult subjects and being their full, messy selves while doing so, and not turn away and not judge, maybe we can do that for ourselves and others in the world.”

She is drawn to her character in “Gidion’s Knot” because she is interested in cracking open her own heart a little more.

“Leonard Cohen says that’s how the light gets in, after all,” she said.

She hopes the audience sees two people staying in the room together, even though it’s difficult. The RTC space is small and intimate, with little to no separation between the performance and the audience.

“I imagine this may affect the piece by making the audience feel the inescapability that both characters feel. I hope they will opt in to the experience, that we go on the journey together,” she said.

“And maybe their hearts will crack open a little more, too.”

A Northern California girl

Sullivan, 46, lives in Ashland. She was born in San Francisco and raised in Oakland and Sonoma.

Her father was a police officer. Her mother was a homemaker and worked part time as a secretary.

“I was incredibly fortunate to grow up in a stable and loving household in which my parents mostly tolerated and even dare I say enjoyed my creative antics,” she said.

Her dad’s two sisters were actresses in the theater and both lived in Northern California.

“I remember my aunt Barbara taking me to see plays at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. She also took me to see her sister, my aunt Jo, as Nurse Ratched in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.’ Formative experiences,” she said.

The first time she performed on stage — versus the kitchen, living room, back yard or wherever else she could talk her cousins into doing shows with her — was when she was cast as one of the Gingerbread Children in a production of the opera, “Hansel and Gretel,” performed at the local community center.

“They needed kids, and my piano teacher at the time was part of the production. He rounded up many of his students to take part,” she said.

“All I remember about the experience was the costumes were delightful and I was always being told to sing louder.”

A psych major

The “aha” moment when she realized she wanted a life in theater came when she was an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego. She was a psychology major in honors classes, intent on going to grad school and obtaining a doctorate.

“I never imagined a life as an actress as a plausible dream,” she said.

“I remember being in my honors statistics class, staring at the board while my brain melted, and realizing in that moment that the only thing I wanted to do was get to rehearsals for a play I was doing.”

Shortly after that, she confessed to her mother that she wanted to be an actress. Her mother’s reply: “What took you so long?”

She dropped out of the honors program but earned a psych degree while minoring in theater. She was a woman of practicality but from then on, she devoted herself to the dream.

After she earned an MFA from the Yale School of Drama she went on to do theater, film, and television, earning accolades for her work, including a (Helen) Hayes Award in 2012 for best lead actress in Washington, D.C., in a year when there were nominations from 192 productions by 53 professional theaters in the area.

OSF drew her to Ashland in 2012.

“I was a brand-new mother and desired a place to land for a little longer term,” she said.

Breathing room

She had been working gig to gig in New York and regionally at the time and needed more breathing room. An associate director at OSF, a friend from grad school, told her the company was still looking to cast Rosalind in “As You Like It.” Sullivan sent an audition tape, then a second tape with a director’s adjustment, and finally flew out for a final audition to see if she could handle the Elizabethan Theatre (it was pre-mics).

“Joyously, I was cast,” she said. “I’ve been here ever since.”

Today, her kids are 8 and 13.

“Living in Ashland has made the juggle of mother/artist more manageable for me,” she said. “I have only a 10-minute drive from the theater to pick up my kids at school. I can walk to OSF when I’m on contract there.”

All that makes the logistics simpler in balancing work, school functions, after-school activities, and running a household.

What’s next for Erica Sullivan?

“Anybody want to cast me in a comedy?” she said. “I could use a little levity. And I’m funny, I swear!”

Freelance writer Jim Flint is a retired newspaper publisher and editor. Email him at [email protected].

This article mentions suicide. Individuals in crisis or looking to help someone else who is can reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988, or visit 988lifeline.org for more resources.