The Perloff effect radiates at ACT gala

Guests of the American Conservatory Theater approaching the ballroom at the Four Seasons Hotel on Saturday, April 7, followed the standard evening gala-goer protocol, pausing to register, picking up table assignments and then walking a few steps more, all the while scanning the crowd — as one does at a party — looking for friendly faces.

And then suddenly, with one toe thus tentatively dipped into the party, they found themselves face to face with the gleaming flash of light, words, glee, excitement that is Carey Perloff. It’s impossible to remain immune from her enthusiasm for work, colleagues, family, friends, literature and everything else in the spotlight of her wide-eyed gaze.

Near the entrance to the party, she introduced her husband, Anthony

Giles, daughter Lexie and son Nick to every arrival, pointing out her friend Tom Stoppard, who’d flown to California to surprise her (and was visible, as in a perfectly staged tableau, just through the glass window to the deck, sitting alone and having a smoke). She called just as much attention to the masked students cavorting at the reception as commedia dell’arte slave/ clowns, dressed in togas to reflect “Carey’s love of the Greeks,” it was said.

Having announced she would be leaving the company after 26 years as artistic director, Perloff was the evening’s honoree and its spark plug. Her greetings to every guest, as always, were as warm as her support for company members, so particularly lauded later in the program.

To actors, crew members and support staff: You can do it, it’ll be the experience of a lifetime, you’ll be brilliant!

To audience members and financial supporters: You can do it, you’ll be glad you did it, you’ll have participated in something unforgettable!

If you’ve ever been introduced by her to a stranger, you’ll walk away feeling a foot taller than when you approached. The program, as described in Catherine Bigelow’s story, included heartfelt (and in some cases tearful) testimonials from Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose, BD Wong, David Strathairn, Anthony Fusco and actor-director Marco Barricelli. It was Stoppard’s role to introduce Perloff, who “embodies in her small frame so many of the things I like in the theater. She’s been part of the luck I’ve had, and ACT has been part of that, too.”

Stoppard quoted “Come to the Edge,” a poem by Christopher Logue that began with that summons and ended, even more more fittingly, with “and (she) pushed and they flew.”

The honoree’s brief remarks ended with the simple proclamation, “I will always be proud that I was here,” even more touching because she’s fondly known as a woman of many words reflecting just as many complicated thoughts. And then it was announced that Studio 9A will henceforth be the Carey Perloff Rehearsal Studio. It was a fundraising gala, yes, but it was also a heartfelt feel-good, romping, rousing love-fest.

Stephen Hochheiser, a Chronicle reader in Northfield, Minn., received a letter from his local bookstore, Content, on April 1: “We’ll be replacing our team of fallible, idiosyncratic humans with digital booksellers, tabletequipped kiosks that will offer instant recommendations ... thanks to the American Booksellers Association’s new partnership with Cambridge Analytica.”

San Francisco is said to be the second most expensive city (after Honolulu) in the country. Considering that, it’s a pleasure to report that although rents may be outrageous around here, the price of ballpark hot dogs isn’t.

A survey of prices of plain old simple ballpark hot dogs puts the Giants’ version ($5.75) squarely in the middle of the big-city teams. The Los Angeles Dodgers serve up $6 dogs; the New York Mets are $6.25; Boston Red Sox, $5.25. Bargain dogs are in Philadelphia ($3.75) and at Chicago White Sox games on Wednesdays, when dogs are $1.

In other culinary notes, the newsletter of the San Francisco Police Department Park Station reports on the outcome of this year’s San Francisco Rec & Park Eggstravaganza Rib Cook-Off, which took place on March 31. “Unfortunately,” says the report, “Park Station did not win best ribs, but did win best side dish for the coleslaw.”

I hear from Sir Francis Drake doorman Tom Sweeney that Nick Bovis is going to open a new incarnation of Lefty O’Doul’s at Fisherman’s Wharf in May. It’ll be a sports bar, the old Union Square fixture taking over the huge spot that was once the Rainforest Cafe, a jungle-themed tourist restaurant.

PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING “If Trump wins in 2020, America will be the first country given the Darwin Award.” Man at the Cantina in Mill Valley, overheard by John Cross