San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
BERKELEY REP’S TONY TACCONE TAKES A BOW.
Rollicking laughs and big bucks were raised at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel during the recent Berkeley Rep “Ovation” gala celebrating the finale season of Artistic Director Tony Taccone.
Greeting 450 guests, emcee Jonathan Moscone, YBCA chief producer, wickedly declared: “Welcome to the last gala Tony Taccone ever has to go to in his entire life.”
“Tony is my brother. He is my older, older, older brother. He’s my shorter, older brother. And I love him,” Moscone said, mingling teasing with his deep admiration for Taccone, whom he entrusted with writing “Ghost Light,” the searingly personal play Moscone directed about the assassination of his late father, Mayor George Moscone.
“But we are here not to just give love to Tony,” continued Moscone, on a comedic roll. “We’re here to raise money for (Berkeley Rep Managing Director) Susie Medak, who scares the s— out of me.”
And guests at this sold-out soiree raised $1 million and change for the theater’s arts education programs, productions and theatrical fellowships.
Among the crowd of fervent Berkeley Rep fans: Taccone’s wife, Morgan Forsey, Taccone’s talented sons, musician Asa Taccone and rap-comedian Jorma Taccone; beloved Emmy-Grammy-OscarTony-winning actress Rita Moreno; New York Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis (who gave “Hamilton” its first stage); and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner.
It was in 1991 at the Eureka Theatre when then-artistic director Taccone first joined forces with his “comrades” — dramaturg Eustis and Kushner. Taccone and Eustis commissioned a play that developed into Kushner’s “Angels in America” tour de force.
Rising for a roast, the adroitly loquacious Kushner delivered a masterful rant hilariously conveying his “anhedonic Ashkenzically depressed” thoughts on Alaska Airlines, The Chronicle’s Little Man and Taccone’s retreat.
“Why did I travel across the goddamn country to celebrate your many years of spectacular success? To express my gratitude and affection? Well, sort of. I’m grateful and I love you,” rattled Kushner. “But I’m also here to tell you how very, very unhappy I am. Are we calling this your retirement party? Who retires in theater, for god’s sake? You have directed more of my plays than any other director on earth. From my perspective, this is a f— abandonment!”
Under Taccone’s terrific 33-year tenure, Berkeley Rep grew from a storefront stage to a socially aware, internationally recognized and prize-winning (including Tony, Obie, Grammy and Drama Desk awards) theater.
Taccone developed The Ground Floor, a theater lab for artists. He also opened a second venue, the 600-seat Roda Theatre, and directed groundbreaking plays: “Wishful Drinking,” written by and starring the late Carrie Fisher, and “Latin History for Morons” — both of which later landed on Broadway.
Eventually Kushner relented, heaping praise on his decades-long friend and collaborator.
“I have always loved working at Berkeley Rep. I’m sure I speak for hundreds of American theater artists: You made us a home. You’ve always been there for me,” Kushner toasted. “Making this difficult thing of doing work in the theater; of making theater; of trying to make meaning by making theater; of trying to make meaning and pleasure, beauty and terror, dance together. You made the work possible. With you, it’s always thrillingly exciting, delectibly human and giant fun.”
Though Taccone takes his final Berkeley Rep bow with his most recent play, “Kiss My Aztec” (www.berkeleyrep.org/season), he’s embarking on a solo theatrical writing and directing career.
“I’m leaving not because I’m tired or burnt out or I’ve run out of ideas. It’s time for somebody new to come in and have at it,” enthused Taccone. “In the words of my favorite playwright, I think our greatest playwright (Tony Kushner), ‘The world only spins forward.’ ”
High art: Harking back to an era of “happenings,” wisps of marijuana wafted from Howard Street inside the Gagosian gallery as artist Richard Prince, sequestered in a quiet nook, observed newly minted multimillionaires (and hello, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi) taking in his new exhibition, “High Times.”
The show (through Aug. 23) comprises Prince’s 1990s “Hippie Drawings” mixed with his new “High Times” works, which rely less on his controversial “appropriation” technique and instead reveal Prince’s penchant for color, collage, copy prints and stick-figure creatures.
Yet the scene was highly orchestrated: Designer Andy Spade, Sonic Youth singer Kim Gordon and global gallerist Larry Gagosian were in the mix for this art show-meets-product launch replete with SUV limos ferrying select guests to Moe Greens dispensary for a bong hit of Prince’s latest creation: a line of couture cannabis.
In partnership with 710 Labs, Prince launched Katz & Dogg (https://katzanddogg.com). The low-THC strain, dubbed Ice Cream Cake, is available in pre-rolled joints or $130 vape pen set, with 5 grams of cannabis, housed in packaging adorned with Prince’s “Hippie” art.
And for guests who partook of puffs atop Moes tufted banquettes, the perfect dinner followed at Cafe du Nord: McCalls dished up a bountiful buffet (fried chicken, lobster, mac ‘n’ cheese) beneath the low, mellow lights of this 1907 Arts and Crafts speakeasy.
“Richard and I both like the vibe and history of ’60s culture and the Summer of Love,” Gagosian said. “I went to UCLA and came up to the city to have fun. I remember seeing Janis Joplin perform. I still love walking around North Beach, visiting City Lights or Vesuvio’s.”
“Richard (Prince) and I both like the vibe and history of ’60s culture and the Summer of Love.” Gallerist Larry Gagosian