Rowena Cade
{{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
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| birth_date = 2 August 1893
| birth_place = Spondon, Derbyshire, England
| death_date = {{death-date and age|26 March 1983|2 August 1893}}
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| relatives = Katharine Burdekin (sister)
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| nationality = British
}}
Rowena Cade (1893–1983) was the creator of the Minack Theatre in Porthcurno, Cornwall, UK.
Cade was born in Spondon near Derby on 2 August 1893.[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 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.{{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}}
File:Plaque to Rowena Cade - geograph.org.uk - 297855.jpg
She discovered and bought the Minack headland in the 1920s for £100 and built a house.{{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}}{{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}} Her sister's marriage had ended in 1922 and she, and later her partner, also lived in Minack.{{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–}}
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.{{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}} The theatre is carved into the granite cliffs at Porthcurno, just a few miles from Land’s End.
She built the theatre herself with the help of her gardener Billy Rawlings in 1931–32.{{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}} 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.
In 1976, Cade gave the theatre to a charitable trust. She died on 26 March 1983.{{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}} The Cade family continued to be involved in the theatre – the general manager in 2015 was married to Rowena's great niece.{{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}} The theatre is now managed by Philip Jackson and has featured in a number of BBC programmes about the South West of Britain.{{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}}{{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}}