It is not clear who initiated the idea, but at some point, Pemberton broached with Perry the possibility of her collaborating with him on a directing project. Their first joint venture was Ransom Rideout's drama about interracial marriage, Goin' Home, which opened at the Hudson Theatre in August 1928. They followed this with the smash hit, Strictly Dishonorable, by Preston Sturges, which premiered in September 1929 and ran for 557 performances, a very long run at a time when productions were so plentiful and competition so fierce. In fact, the 1927-28 season, just before the onslaught of talking pictures, marked Broadway's historical peak, with an all-time high of no less than 264 shows opening in 76 theaters.

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With Pemberton as her partner, Perry put acting behind her and became a full-fledged director, staging such works as Personal Appearance, 1934; Ceiling Zero, 1935; Kiss the Boys Goodbye, 1938; Lady in Waiting, 1940; and Janie, 1942. But her biggest hit was her 1944 smash, Harvey.

When Perry first read the script of Mary Coyle Chase's comedy about a pacific boozer named Elwood P. Dowd and his chum Harvey, a six-foot-one-inch rabbit that only Elwood could see, Perry feared that staging it would be impossible. But she toiled on the project, helped whip the unpolished script into shape, and mounted a triumph starring Frank Fay that ran for 1,755 performances at the 48th Street Theater in New York.

Despite her achievements, neither Perry's acting nor her directing skills explain the high esteem in which she was held by the theater community. Rather, it was her efforts as an activist, organizer, and promoter of causes that benefited and uplifted her Broadway "family." As Pemberton put it, "Probably about a third of her life was given to our work, the other two-thirds to helping people individually or through the organizations she headed."

In 1937, Perry chaired the American Theatre Council's Committee of the Apprentice Theatre, and four years later, became president of Actors Equity's Experimental Theatre. In both capacities, her job centered around finding and nurturing new theatrical talent. Her heart went out to the many struggling performers hoping to get a break. Among the actors she auditioned and promoted were David Wayne, Hugh Marlowe, and Montgomery Clift. As early as May 1938, her efforts were hailed with a gala, after-theater supper at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, during which she was lauded for having already helped more than a thousand young thespians.

Perry also dedicated herself to the American Theatre Wing, the organization that today oversees the Tony Awards. Established in 1917 by playwright Rachel Crothers and six other women of the theater as the "Stage Women's War Relief," the Wing's self-appointed duties included the collection of food and clothing for war relief, selling Liberty Bonds, and entertaining servicemen. After World War I, the Wing turned to helping civilians, but remained fairly dormant until 1939 and the beginning of World War II in Europe. Once again, Crothers summoned the women of Broadway, and the organization reemerged as a branch of the British War Relief Society. When the United States entered the war in 1941, the organization became independent, with such notables as Gertrude Lawrence, Helen Hayes, Josephine Hull, and Perry, assisting Crothers as officers.

The American Theatre Wing's accomplishments on behalf of the war effort were many and, as befits the profession of its members, often creative. They held dances, teas, concerts, cruises, even celebrity dog shows, but the most illustrious of the Wing's wartime activities was the initiation of the Stage Door Canteens. The idea for the canteens seems to have been mainly Perry's; there is no doubt that she was their prime mover. The first canteen opened in the basement of New York's 44th Street Theatre in March 1942. Branches were later established in Hollywood; Boston; Washington, D. C.; Philadelphia; Cleveland, Ohio; Newark, New Jersey; and San Francisco, as well as in Paris and London.

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