Interior designer, impresario Robert C. Watkins Jr. dies
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Robert C. Watkins Jr. was an interior designer, ballet and theater impresario, designer for more than 50 seasons of debutante comings-out at the Bal du Bois and co-creator of an elegant home and resplendent parties.
Mr. Watkins, who died at 93 Tuesday night at his North Plum Street residence in Richmond, "was probably one of the most creative human beings I've met in my life," said Warfield Truesdale, who met him and his business and life partner, deVeaux Riddick, at Design, a business they founded on East Franklin Street in 1950 that was the first modern interior design business in Richmond.
"I can't think of anyone in Richmond who has spent more time, talents and more of his personal money to promote ballet and theater in Richmond," Truesdale said.
A Richmond native who grew up on Hanover Avenue, he served in the Aleutian Islands during World War II and returned home after to attend the theater school of Richmond Professional Institute, where he met Riddick.
They formed one of the city's longest-running impresario partnerships.
During the 1950s, he and Riddick founded Ballet Impromptu to provide local dance students a performance outlet for their talents. The company was the precursor to the Richmond Ballet, founded by them and other dance enthusiasts, in 1957. The Ballet turned professional in 1984 and won designation in 1990 as the state ballet.
Mr. Watkins often sketched ideas for sets and costumes on brown paper bags and handed them off to Riddick, who executed them, friends said. He also got to the point where he began saving sets and stored them in three warehouses. They resurfaced in later productions-especially one pouf, a two-piece fake Edwardian-era seat that became a joke because it was seen in so many productions.
When asked to help raise funds for Sheltering Arms Hospital in 1957, Mr. Watkins and Riddick came up with the idea for a debutante ball dubbed the Bal du Bois. Mr. Watkins, who designed the scenery and decorations, and Riddick, who executed their creation, made more than 50 seasons of memorable comings-out for hundreds of young Richmond women.
For five years during the 1960s, they ran the Lyric Theater on Broad Street, where they produced shows in a Broadway style ranging from "Showboat" to "Kismet."
In 1976, after a split, Mr. Watkins, Riddick and dancer Scott Boyer, left the Richmond Ballet and formed the Concert Ballet of Virginia.
Mr. Watkins and Riddick founded the Bolling-Haxall Theater company at the Woman's Club in 1985 that staged until several years ago three productions a year of draw-ing-room comedies ranging from "The Importance of Being Earnest" to "Blithe Spirit."
Riddick is his only immediate survivor.
