June 2012
Rowena had been enchanted with the theatre since she was seven when she played the part of Alice in 'Alice through the looking glass' in a performance organised by her mother. The audience for the dress rehearsal was mainly made up of the servants, but at least twenty people, relations and neighbours, were there to watch the first night.
After her father's death in 1920 Rowena and her mother moved frequently; finally their search ended when they discovered a house in Lamorna, right on the beach. After the huge lonely hills of Derbyshire the great rugged coast of Cornwall fascinated Rowena. She discovered a small Headland jutting out precariously into the sea. She managd to buy it for £100. It was there she built the House using granite from the nearby quarry.
There was very little theatre in Cornwall and most was self made. So Rowena invited family and friends to the House where they staged many performances.
A more ambitious performance of Midsummer Night's Dream was planned in a nearby meadow. Rowena did not take part, having discovered she had a talent for costume designing, she made most of the costumes herself, and sitting in the field with her sewing machine during the rehearsals making last minute adjustments. Their next performance was to be The Tempest, and as Rowena's garden was on the cliff top with it's view of the waves pounding on the cliffs, it would be the ideal location, but there was very little room for an audience to sit.
Rowena pondered this problem and then hit upon the idea of using the gully above the rocks on her headland. She and two Cornish craftsmen spent the next six months, battling with the rain and wind, on the precarious ledge on the cliffs, lugging fallen boulders, cutting them by hand and hauling them into place to make a simple stage and basic seating; the gaps were infilled with pebbles and gravel collected from the rocks.
In 1932, Rowena, then 38 years old, watched as the audience, armed with cushions, bought their tickets at a table in the garden, scrambled through the gorse path and down to the stage. The first performance of the Tempest began. The pathway was lit by lights from car batteries, the stage by the brilliant moonlight sparkling on the sea. The Tempest, was the first of many performances in the magical place.
After The Second World War, troops and prisoners of war, sent to clear the costal defences, cleared away all her hard work. The headland was now back to the barren cliff top she had originally discovered. Undaunted she started again. She developed a technique of using cement, instead of stone, and with a screwdriver carved out intricate lettering on the walls; she lugged great boulders, bags of sand and twelve huge 15ft beams from the beach up the ninety steps. Customs men looking for the remains of a Spanish wreck enquired if she had seem the beams, she told them she had collected some wood she found on the beach, thinking this frail little lady had gathered up kindling, they went on their way. She and her helper Billy Rawlings worked tirelessly building the seating, a great granite wall, and an access road to the car park.
The theatre, finally completed, became the scene of many productions. Producers clamour still for the chance to put on a play at the magical Minack Theatre.