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William Donald Ritman (February 28, 1928 - May 3, 1984) was awarded the 1981 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Set Design for "Morning's at Seven," at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, California. He was a prolific scenic designer of "Morning's at 7" and plays by Edward Albee, Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, among others. In a New York career that spanned almost 25 years, he designed the original sets for most of Albee's plays including "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," "Tiny Alice" and "A Delicate Balance" and for a number of Beckett's American premieres. Many of his designs were for productions directed by Alan Schneider.
The work of Broadway's gay and lesbian artistic community went on display in 2007 when the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation Gallery presents "StageStruck: The Magic of Theatre Design." The exhibit was conceived to highlight the achievements of gay and lesbian designers who work in conjunction with fellow gay and lesbian playwrights, directors, choreographers and composers. Original sketches, props, set pieces and models — some from private collections — represent the work of over 60 designers, including William Ritman.
William Donald Ritman was born on February 28, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Hyman Benjamin Ritman and Rose Ritman. He studied design at the Goodman Theater and then worked on Broadway, Off Broadway and in regional theater. In one season, 1964, he designed 10 shows, including Pinter's "Lover," Beckett's "Play," Albee's "Tiny Alice" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream." He also worked as a lighting designer. For eight years, he was the producer of the Rebekah Harkness Dance Festival at the New York Shakespeare Festival's Delacorte Theater in Central Park. He taught set design at Buffalo and Yale Universities.
Ritman was celebrated for his detailed theatrical versions of apartments and houses - the mysterious mansion-within-a-mansion of ''Tiny Alice''; the warm, middle American environment of ''Morning's at 7''; ''Six Rms Riv Vu''; and the rummage-filled student apartment of ''Moonchildren.'' He also created the lovers rendezvous of ''Same Time, Next Year,'' the elegant estate for ''Noel Coward in Two Keys,'' and Neil Simon's cliff-dweller lair in ''Chapter Two.'' Theatergoers often felt as if they could move right in to a Ritman set. As Elizabeth McCann, co-producer of ''Morning's at 7,'' said yesterday about that show: ''When the curtain went up, I wanted the audience to know we loved the play. I think Billy put everything he had into that set. It was very very important to that revival. He was an extraordinary designer.''
At the same time, Mr. Ritman frequently extended himself beyond naturalism - into the abstraction of Beckett (the sand-heap of ''Happy Days''), the stark cube of Mr. Albee's ''Box- Mao-Box'' and the Magritte-inspired world of Tom Stoppard's ''After Magritte.''
He lived in New York City and in Sag Harbor, L.I
William Ritman died on May 3, 1984 in his New York apartment. He was 56 years old and had been ill with cancer for more than 18 months.
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