A gala to say goodbye
Cast of hundreds honors artistic director as ACT raises $1.2 million
When storied playwright Tom Stoppard casually strolled into the Noe Valley home of Carey Perloff early Saturday, April 7 — just hours prior to the American Conservatory Theater gala in her honor — the artistic director, dressed in jeans and banging out emails on her laptop, was, as Stoppard puts it, “gobsmacked.”
That colorful British slang describes recipients of such an extreme surprise (like winning the lottery) as too “astounded” — speechless, even — to respond to the situation.
Yet wordlessness is as foreign as the moon for Perloff, who was roasted and toasted for a quartercentury of her signature loquaciousness and theatrical artistry Saturday evening at the Four Seasons Hotel.
Stoppard is no stranger to ACT. His work has often graced the ACT stage under Perloff’s leadership. His last appearance here was in 2016 when Perloff directed his play “The Hard Problem.” He recalled meeting Perloff 25 years ago in London, where she arrived dressed in a somber black suit.
“She loves to remind me I said she looked like a banker. But that’s not so un-apt for anyone running a cultural nonprofit: Money is something you live, day and night,” he noted. “Yet one doesn’t compare Carey with anybody. She possesses an appetite for theater no one else can claim and a complete engagement with the art and theory of theater.”
In June, Perloff exits stage left. But her finale includes a seasonending revival of her hit “A Thousand Splendid Suns” before passing her baton to Tony Awardwinning director Pam MacKinnon.
This “ACT Celebrates Carey” soiree, led by co-chairs and longtime ACT trustees Nancy Livingston and Priscilla Geeslin, was billed as black-tie. Yet the joyful
scene was far from stuffy.
The long, window-walled hall fronting the hotel ballroom was a colorful riot of ACT Perloff production posters as costumed Conservatory 2019 MFA students entertaining 310 guests sipping cocktails.
Even sans a lengthy live auction, good-time gala-goers raised $1.2 million for ACT’s education, artist training and community programs that, annually, serve 20,000 students and adults. Not only was this ACT’s most successful gala, but it also established the Carey Perloff Classics Fund, ensuring future productions of that canon.
Among fans: loyal supporter Frannie Fleishhacker, ACT Executive Director Peter Pastreich, Conservatory Director Melissa Smith, new board President Kay Yun, philanthropists Dagmar Dolby and Cissie Swig, ACT trustee Jeff Ubben, Rusty and Patti Rueff, and singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman.
A Champagne toast to Perloff was raised by her family: daughter Lexie Perloff-Giles, son Nick PerloffGiles (who rocked the postparty as DJ Wingtip) and husband Anthony Giles, whom she met in 1981 at Oxford University, where they worked on Edinburgh Festival shows.
“After Carey’s 26 years at ACT, one of the things I’m most sad about: This is the closest I’ve come to being onstage,” he joked, fondly.
“Many times I’d hope to be in a big play, like Shakespeare. But apparently sleeping with the artistic director gets you nothing.”
During a three-course dinner, guests delighted to musical performances from Perloff productions, including Tom Waits’ music from Robert Wilson’s “The Black Rider.” But the most constant chorus emanated from a roster of award-winning stars (including Marco Barricelli, Shona Tucker, David Strathairn, Brigid O’Brien, Peter Anderson), many of whom honed their craft as Conservatory students under Perloff’s tutelage.
Actor BD Wong, a San Francisco native who has achieved great acclaim on Broadway and television, was initially verklempt, struggling to contain his emotion before finding words to describe Perloff.
Anika Noni Rose boldly declared, “Carey changed my world” — along with increasing the diversity of those who acted onstage or toiled behind the curtain.
As a student, Rose recalled picking up coffees during rehearsal, joking that, for the always-animated Perloff, she’d get decaf. But Wong feigned disagreement about that beverage choice.
“I will never refrain from giving Carey caffeinated coffee. That’s where you get the full ‘Carey Perloff experience,’ ” he enthused.
“That’s the experience she gives to ACT audiences: something to listen to, to be rapt for, curious and stimulated. It’s beautiful, theatrically sized, and it’s brave.”
Bravery was often required by Perloff: Shortly after arriving at ACT, she was tasked with rebuilding the historic Geary Theater when it sustained major damage in the 1989 earthquake. She juggled midnight calls from unhappy donors or the theater manager, who informed her a track from “A Christmas Carol” fell in the hole. Artistic choices onstage didn’t always translate into box-office bonanzas.
Yet this powerhouse never shied from soothing an understudy’s ruffled feathers or banging her fundraising drum.
And her successes were many: Perloff revitalized the Conservatory’s MFA program. She expanded programming and focused on new works, commissions and creation of the New Strands Festival that plays on Market Street at the Strand Theater, a 1917 silent movie house purchased and redeveloped by ACT for $18 million.
“Oh, my god, it feels like I’ve died!” exclaimed Perloff, when she finally got ahold of the mike. “There’s no greater joy than walking into a rehearsal room. That process of working together, creating, is addictive and beautiful. I’ll never tire of it. I’m a scavenger of experiences. I’ve learned, I’ve failed and I’ve seen things at ACT that are magical.”
Perloff also paid tribute to the late William Ball, who, 50 years ago, founded ACT with an exacting vision.
“I never met Bill, but he was passionate that theater is inextricably linked to the community through its repertoire and actor training,” she said. “That civic discourse is about the outrageous, the beautiful, the imaginative and gathering in a space to experience something with people unlike yourself. I know ACT will continue to carry Bill’s vision forward.”
Perloff’s vision will also live on for actors like Anthony Fusco, who praised her powerful belief in others: “To be in the laser beam of Carey Perloff is to believe in yourself.”
That sentiment was echoed by numerous actors, who in a tribute video, likened Perloff to a force of nature.
“She’s like a tsunami, but in a good way,” said former San Francisco Ballet dancer Pascal Molat, star of Perloff’s “The Tosca Project,” with a laugh. “Carey is not only a natural force — I think she’s the fifth element!”