Beatrice Augusta de Leon born Beatrice Augusta Lewisohn (12 August 1902 – 16 February 1991) was a British theatre manager, dance school owner and impresario. She and Jack de Leon founded the Q Theatre funded by

Delia de Leon Delia de Leon (10 February 1901 – 21 January 1993) was a British actress and co-founder of the Q Theatre. She was a devoted disciple of the Indian spiritual master Meher Baba and was the subject of a film by musician Pete Townshend. Early li ...

Life

De Leon was born in the

London Borough of Hackney London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1902. Her parents were Lydia Moses and Bernhard Lewisohn; the latter, who died in 1906, was a boot manufacturer. She was taken to the theatre and opera when growing up, and her mother would get her to recite. She learnt typing and shorthand before following her elder brother Victor into the acting profession, training at Herbert Beerbohm Tree's Academy of Dramatic Art. She later did some acting but discovered that she had stage fright. In 1923, she and Delia de Leon founded the London Academy of Dramatic Art. Two years earlier she had married Delia's brother, Jack de Leon, a solicitor with an interest in the arts. In 1924, she and her husband took a lease of what had been the Prince's Hall Cinema in Kew. No longer a cinema, it had become a film studio for a while and had in the past been a pub and roller-skating rink. They decided to rename it the Q Theatre. On Boxing Day that year, the first production was

Gertrude Jennings Gertrude Eleanor Jennings (1877–1958) was a British theatrical author of the early twentieth century notable for her one-act social comedies. Life A daughter of British born Louis John Jennings, one-time editor of the ''New York Times'' (187 ...

' successful comedy ''The Young Person in Pink''; in which De Leon made her professional debut as an actor. Plays continued at the Q Theatre until 1929 when disagreements led to the De Leons stepping back. Her husband was having success as a playwright and was involved with other West End productions. His first play was performed at the Q Theatre, as were the first plays by Terence Rattigan and William Douglas-Home. De Leon returned in 1931 to put on productions created by her drama school. She was now in charge and the theatre returned to professional productions, with several transferring to the West End. Jack De Leon died in 1956 and the Q Theatre closed. De Leon and her daughter Jean ran a dance studio at the Richmond Adult College for 30 years. After she retired, Beatie would use her money to back new productions in the West End. One of her successes was to invest in ''

Oliver! ''Oliver!'' is a coming-of-age stage musical, with book, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the 1838 novel '' Oliver Twist'' by Charles Dickens. It premiered at the Wimbledon Theatre, southwest London in 1960 before op ...

'' De Leon lived with her sister-in-law Delia in

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...

. She died at her home in 1991. The building that contained the Q Theatre was demolished and replaced with a block of flats.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:de Leon, Beatrice 1902 births 1991 deaths People from Hackney, London British theatre managers and producers