He was the first stage designer who would become a household word. Who or what has been the biggest influence on your sense of design? In addition to theater you have built careers as interior designers and have designed some 50 Bal du Bois debutante balls for the Junior Board of the Sheltering Arms Hospital. On the other hand, most of these groups still exist so each one has its own niche. But most groups are covetous of what they have. Riddick: There have been efforts to get theater groups to work together on such things as sharing mailing lists and talent. There's a world of theater that's obscure to them. There's a world of art they don't even know about. Their knowledge doesn't even go back to the 1930s. The average person doesn't have a sense of what's gone before. I suppose that's the same thing but I had to phrase it differently so it wouldn't look like a cop-out Watkins: People with high personal opinions of themselves. If drawing room comedies are comedies of manners, what do you consider the worst human characteristic? Riddick: I enjoyed our first production, “The Kingfisher.” It featured only three actors: Suzanne Pollard, Bob Albertia and myself. And along the way we discovered some plays such as the “The Circle” by Somerset Maugham. What is your favorite play produced at the theater? Watkins: Noel Coward and Somerset Maugham. Also, I believe the average person becomes more informed as time passes. We never felt that anybody was looking over our shoulder.

We developed a stable of actors that was as dedicated as we were and the fact that the Woman's Club was committed to this, and trusted us. Watkins: The dedication of the performers. Style: What's the key to the longevity - some 25 years - of the Theatre at the Bolling Haxall House? Style recently interviewed Watkins and Riddick in the elegantly appointed parlor of their Fan District home. In addition to the Theatre at the Bolling Haxall House, Watkins and Riddick were involved in founding the Richmond Ballet in the 1950s and, in 1976, the Concert Ballet of Virginia. The company's encyclopedic repertoire includes such classics in the genre as “The Importance of Being Earnest ” “Blithe Spirit,” “Hay Fever,” “Present Laughter” and “The Constant Wife.”Īmong the actors featured in this week's tribute will be Robert Albertia, Ann Belk, Jeanne Boisineau, Richard Koch, Vicki McLeod, Jim Morgan, Dan Stackhouse and Kristen Swanson.

Appropriately, the performance will take place at the Theatre at the Bolling Haxall House at the Woman's Club, where since 1985, the company that Watkins and Riddick co-founded has staged 33 productions of 29-drawing room comedies. As long as anyone can remember Robert Watkins, 89, and deVeaux Riddick, 84, have been significant players on the Richmond theater and dance scene as producers, designers, and in Riddick's case, as an actor.Ī one-night gala, “As Far As Love Can Reach: An Evening of Staged Readings of Love Stories,” will salute these two impresarios Feb.

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