{{Short description|Founder of the Minack Theatre (1893–1983)}} {{Use British English|date=June 2019}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = Rowena Cade | image = Rowena_Cade.png | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = 2 August 1893 | birth_place = Spondon, Derbyshire, England | death_date = {{death date and age text|26 March 1983|2 August 1893}} | death_place = Porthcurno, Cornwall, England | death_cause = | other_names = | known_for = | education = | employer = | occupation = | title = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = Katharine Burdekin (sister) | signature = | website = | footnotes = }}
'''Dorothy Mary Rowena Cade'''<ref name="ODNB">{{Cite ODNB|id=58408|title=Cade, (Dorothy Mary) Rowena (1893–1983)}}</ref> (2 August 1893 – 26 March 1983) was the creator of the Minack Theatre in Porthcurno, Cornwall, UK.
Cade was born in Spondon near Derby on 2 August 1893.<ref name=new>[http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/famous-cornish-people/cade-rowena.htm Rowena Cade, Creator of the Minack Theatre], cornwall-calling, Retrieved 26 June 2017</ref> She was the older sister of Katharine Burdekin and with her two brothers they lived at The Homestead in Spondon. Rowena Cade's family sold their house in Spondon and Cheltenham and moved to Lamorna in West Penwith, Cornwall after the First World War.<ref name="auto">{{Cite news|url=https://www.cornwalls.co.uk/history/people/rowena_cade.htm|title=Rowena Cade - Creator of the Minack Theater|date=2013-01-07|work=Cornwall Guide|access-date=2017-06-26|language=en}}</ref> alt= Plaque commemorating the founder and builder of the Minack Theatre|thumb|left|Plaque commemorating the founder and builder of the Minack Theatre
She discovered and bought the Minack headland in the 1920s for £100 and built a house.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.cornwallforever.co.uk/places/minack-theatre|title=Minack Theatre history & Rowena Cade {{!}}|work=Cornwall For Ever!|access-date=2017-06-26|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-21850687|title=In Pictures: Rowena Cade's Minack theatre|date=2013-03-24|work=BBC News|access-date=2017-06-26|language=en-GB}}</ref> Her sister's marriage had ended in 1922 and she, and later her partner, also lived in Minack.<ref name="Burdekin1989">{{cite book|author=Katharine Burdekin|title=The End of this Day's Business|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w1qf5qa8zs0C&pg=PA163|year=1989|publisher=Feminist Press at CUNY|isbn=978-1-55861-009-5|pages=163–}}</ref>
After Cade put on a local production of ''A Midsummer Night’s Dream'' in 1929, she began searching for a suitable venue for a permanent outdoor stage.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/10245136/Carved-in-granite-the-Minack-Theatre-was-more-than-merely-a-stage-for-Miss-Cade.html|title=Carved in granite, the Minack Theatre was more than merely a stage for Miss Cade|work=Telegraph.co.uk|access-date=2017-06-26|language=en}}</ref> The theatre is located on a granite cliff at Porthcurno, near Land’s End.<ref name=":0" />
She built the theatre herself with the help of her gardener Billy Rawlings in 1931–32.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.minack.com/our-history-1/|title=Our history - Minack Theatre|work=Minack Theatre|access-date=2017-06-26|language=en-GB}}</ref> The stage took six months to build and the first performance was of Shakespeare's ''The Tempest'' in summer 1932. Without any formal lighting, the performance used batteries and car headlights to light the stage.<ref name=":1" />
In 1976, Cade gave the theatre to a charitable trust.<ref name=":1" /> She died at Minack House on 26 March 1983.<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=1055|title=Engineering Timelines - Minack Theatre|website=www.engineering-timelines.com|access-date=2017-06-26}}</ref> The Cade family continued to be involved in the theatre – the general manager in 2015 was married to Rowena's great niece.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Desforges|first=Kate Elizabeth|date=Jan 2015|title=Burdekin's Utopian Visions: A Study of Four Interwar Texts|url=https://hydra.hull.ac.uk/assets/hull:14090a/content|volume=PhD Thesis|via=University of Hull}}</ref> The theatre is now managed by Philip Jackson and has featured in a number of BBC programmes about the South West of Britain.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04fl6zs|title=Minack Theatre - drama by the sea, Coastal Path - BBC One|website=BBC|date=8 November 2016 |access-date=2017-06-26}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Countryfile|title=Minack Theatre and Rowena Cade (Cornwall) - BBC - 24th April 2016|date=2016-04-25|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrs6s3zBeD4 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/mrs6s3zBeD4 |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|access-date=2017-06-26}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
==References== {{Portal|Cornwall}} {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cade, Rowena}} Category:1893 births Category:1983 deaths Category:Theatre people from Cornwall Category:People from Spondon Category:British women sculptors