Heidi Ettinger

Heidi Ettinger, also known by her former married name Heidi Landesman, is an American theatre producer and set designer. She studied at Occidental College and the Yale School of Drama. She was the first woman to win a Tony Award for set design, which she won for the musical '' Big River''. She has also won the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle awards and an Obie Award.

Career

She has designed the sets for many Broadway productions, starting with '''night, Mother'' in 1983, and including ''Big River'' (1985), ''The Secret Garden'' (1991), and ''Good Vibrations'' in 2005. Of her sets for ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'', the ''CurtainUp'' reviewer wrote: "The best starting point for what's right and wrong with 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer', the new musical based on Mark Twain's novel, are Heidi Ettinger's sets. Ettinger, who also worked on 'Big River', ... has given the town of St. Petersburg, Mo. the look of a colorful three-dimensional folk art painting or quilt."

She designed the sets for '' Triumph of Love'' in 1997, and ''The Sound of Music'' revival also in 1997. In an article in ''The New York Times'', the writer observed "If there is an Ettinger trademark linking all her designs, it's that there is no trademark. 'I never do the same thing twice,' she ttingersaid."

She has designed for many Off-Broadway productions, starting with ''The Vienna Notes'' by Richard Nelson at Playwrights Horizons in 1979 and more recently ''Uncommon Women and Others'' by Wendy Wasserstein at Second Stage Theatre in 1994.

She designed the scenery for the production of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park in August 1982, with Mel Gussow in his review in ''The New York Times'' noting: "...the Delacorte Theater in Central Park has been turned into a sylvan glade, complete with rolling greensward, trees, blossoming flowers and a babbling pond. The scene is natural - not artificial -and, for that, credit should go to the scenic designer, Heidi Landesman..."
She designed the set for the Second Stage Theatre production of ''Painting Churches'' in February 1983. The reviewer for ''The Christian Science Monitor'' wrote : "The production staged by Carole Rothman has been beautifully and observantly designed by Heidi Landesman (scenery)..." She won the Obie Award for her work on ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' and ''Painting Churches''.

She designed the set for the Off-Broadway one-man show ''Dinner With Demons'' at the Second Stage Theater in 2003, which was written and performed by her husband, Jonathan Reynolds. She was the "chief advocate" for this production. The ''CurtainUp'' reviewer noted: "Having won her case, she's created a set that is a star in its own right. The wide stage is flanked by two colorful cornucopias of fruits, vegetables and breads, with a floor to ceiling backdrop of spice jar filled glass shelves and overhanging the work area there's thousands of dollars worth of shiny copper utensils..." She designed the sets for ''King Lear'' in 2007 at the Public Theater, starring Kevin Kline. Ben Brantley, ''The New York Times'' reviewer wrote: "Ms. Ettinger’s tiered high-concept set combines industrial chic with a feeling of elemental magic."

She also worked in Berlin, designing a production of '' Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1999).

In regional theater, she designed the sets for the musical ''Zhivago'' (later retitled ''Doctor Zhivago'') which ran at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2006. She designed the sets for the stage musical ''A Room with a View'', which ran at the Old Globe Theatre in 2012.

Personal

She was married to Rocco Landesman, who she met at Yale; they divorced circa 1997. She married Jonathan Reynolds, a playwright, in 2004. Reynolds died in 2021.

Awards and nominations

;Tony Award
*1985 - Scenic Design (Play or Musical) ''Big River'' Winner
*1991 - Scenic Design (Play or Musical) ''The Secret Garden'' Winner
*2001 - Scenic Design (Play or Musical) ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' Nominated
;Drama Desk Award
*1985 - Outstanding Set Design ''Big River'' Winner
*2001 - Outstanding Set Design of a Musical ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' Nominated
; Outer Critics Circle Award
*1998 Outstanding Set Design ''The Sound of Music'' Nominated
*2001 Outstanding Set Design ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' Nominated
; Obie Award
*1983 Design ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' and ''Painting Churches'' Winner

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ettinger, Heidi
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American theatre managers and producers
American scenic designers
Women scenic designers
Yale School of Drama alumni
Tony Award winners
Drama Desk Award winners