Good news and bad news for Seattle Repertory Theatre subscribers and fans.

The good news: New Vaudeville clown Bill Irwin and Tony-winner Stephen Spinella (Angels in America ) will star in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot Feb. 3 to March 2.

The bad news: Longtime artistic director Dan Sullivan, who raised Seattle Rep to national prominence during his 17-year tenure, will leave his post in June 1997, at the end of the 1996-97 season. In 1990, Seattle Rep won the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

Sullivan, a three-time Tony-nominated director, is best known to theatregoers beyond Seattle as director of Wendy Wasserstein's The Sisters Rosensweig, his own Inspecting Carol, Herb Gardner's Conversations With My Father and Jon Robin Baitz' The Substance of Fire. He is currently in off-Broadway rehearsals for A Far Country, Baitz' new play, developed at Seattle Rep.

Citing the planned opening of Seattle Rep's second stage in January 1997, Sullivan said, "I will do the very best to produce a grand farewell next season to celebrate this event. Then, it will be time for me to move on. I'm involved in many projects that provide me with opportunities for new professional growth. It would not be fair to the Rep for me to have a divided eye."An eight-member search committee has been formed by board of trustees Chairman James F. Tune and Managing Director Benjamin Moore. A successor to Sullivan is expected to be named in autumn 1996.

Bill Irwin was one of many artists who developed work at Seattle Rep during Sullivan's stewardship. His Largely/ New York debuted there. Irwin will play Vladimir to Spinella's Estragon in the revival of Waiting for Godot, which will be directed by Doug Hughes. For information: (206) 443-2222.