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Credo: Carey Perloff
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(Courtesy photo)
American Conservatory Theater Artistic Director Carey Perloff says it is a magical experience to watch actors she knows well transform into completely new characters. Carey Perloff, the artistic director of The City’s American Conservatory Theater, tells us how she found her career path, about her parents’ influence and how the theater connects her to spirituality. What made you choose this for a career? I wanted to be a classical archaeologist all my life and spent much of my youth digging up ruins. [I] studied ancient Greek at Stanford, where I started reading tragedies in Greek and performing them at Frost Amphitheater. One thing led to another and suddenly I found myself in the theater full time. It answers everything I love: It is kinesthetic, visual, psychological, visceral, erotic, alive, fast and always surprising. What do you consider to be the guiding principles or philosophy that has led you to your current position in life? Who did you learn it from? My parents are rather remarkable people, and I think I learned by osmosis from them to squeeze the most out of every second of life. If you found $100,000 in a paper bag tomorrow, what would you do with it? Commission 10 new plays. Do you consider yourself a spiritual person? If so, what religion or philosophy or set of beliefs guide your spirituality? Yes, in an odd way I feel like a very spiritual person, although I follow no organized religion. When I walk into the Geary [Theater], it is like a cathedral, filled with the ghosts of hundreds of astonishing artists from decades past. Making art on that stage is a way of communing with all of our collective spiritual history. The magic of directing is watching actors you know well transform into characters you’ve never encountered, and in that alchemy lies a kind of magic that I never get tired of exploring. At a certain point in the theater, you have to leave your mind behind and catch up with your soul. Otherwise the work is arid and predictable. How do you handle it when your productions are panned in the press? How do you see the bright side? Seeing the bright side of criticism requires a superhuman effort that I am rarely capable of. What is the best lesson you’ve ever learned? The hardest? Is there anything that you regret? The best lesson I ever learned was from Betty Buckley, who has a technique she calls “error correct,” meaning — accept it when you have made a mistake, turn a corner and move on. The hardest lesson I’ve ever learned is that it is impossible to ensure that your children are always happy, no matter how much you love them, or to control how their lives unfold. Being a parent, like being a director, is about letting go and seeing what happens. |
