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ALLAN JEFFREY and LEIZ MOORE - Co-Producers
and Co-Directors
This
is the third directorial collaboration between Allan and Leiz and their
first at the Theatre Royal. A dynamic husband and wife team, they are
drawn to shows that engage and entertain audiences. With a love for contemporary
musicals, they enjoy the added challenge and rewards of this genre. Over
the last decade they have built a reputation for creating quality, entertaining
shows along with discovering and showcasing great local talent. Just some
of the shows they have been involved with include A Slice of Saturday
Night, La Cage aux Folles, I love you, you’re perfect, now change!, Stepping
Out, Peter Pan, Wind in the Willows, Beware the Witches and with
The Show Company Secrets Every Smart Traveller Should Know and
Company.
Leiz is a qualified dance teacher and has choreographed a number of shows. Allan has a broader interest in influencing the development of arts in Australia and is Vice-Chair of the Australian Script Centre.
PETR
DIVIS – Musical Director (Vocal)
Petr’s
previous involvement with the G&S Society includes directing The
Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and performing in Oliver!
and Me and My Girl. He has musically directed productions of
Nunsense, Back to the 80s, Beware the Witches!
and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, the 2001
and 2006 City of Hobart Carols by Candlelight and all four productions
staged by The Show Company – ONE!,
ONE more!, Secrets Every Smart Traveller Should Know
and last year’s Company. Petr has appeared in numerous shows,
with principal roles including Amos Hart in Chicago, Oscar Lindquist
in Sweet Charity, Eddie Lyons in Blood Brothers, Robert
in Company, Orin Scrivello in Little Shop of Horrors,
the Defendant in Trial by Jury, Captain Lennox in The Secret
Garden, Mr Sowerberry in Oliver!, Simon Mostyn in Murder
on the Nile, Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing and Norman
in Living Together. Additional directing credits include Don’s
Party, Così, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are
Dead, And Then There Were None, On Top of the World,
Sweet Phoebe, Daylight Saving and Wildest Dreams.
Petr holds Bachelors of Music and Law, both with Honours, from the University of Tasmania, as well as his Licentiate and Associate Diplomas in Performance from both the AMEB and Trinity College, London.
AARON
POWELL - Musical Director (Orchestral)
Aaron
holds a Diploma of Music and is currently studying towards a Bachelor
of Music and Bachelor of Teaching at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music.
He regularly works as an accompanist for choirs and soloists and last
year travelled to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to accompany Allison Farrow
in her show I’m a Stranger Here Myself: the songs of Kurt Weill.
Aaron has musically directed shows such as Oklahoma! for the
Hobart Summer Theatre School, Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet
Street for Shouting in the Evening, The Venetian Twins and
A Slice of Saturday Night for Hobart Rep, Assassins
and Company for Rosny College and Urinetown for Elizabeth
College.
Aaron has also appeared on stage in numerous musicals including Les Misérables for the Tasmanian Theatre Unit Trust and West Side Story and Sweet Charity for X Wellington Wellington X/Theatre Royal, and played Simon in Jesus Christ Superstar for Pierrot Productions. He also played keyboard in the orchestra for ExitLeft’s spectacle Cats last year. Beauty and the Beast proudly marks Aaron’s debut at waving the baton in the Theatre Royal. Aaron sings with the ANCA Tasmanian Voices, is a co-producer with Hobart theatre company Shouting in the Evening and is Musical Director of the Australian Rosny Children’s Choir.
WIILIAM
DOWD - Artistic Designer
Beginning
a career with Hobart Rep and the Old Nick Company in the 1960s, Bill has
spent a lifetime working for subsidized, commercial and institutional
theatre companies all over Australia. As some highlights of a design career
of nearly three hundred productions, Bill counts the Australian premiere
production of Cabaret with Nancye Hayes and Jon Ewing, inaugural
seasons at the Sydney Opera House, Othello for Keith Mitchell
and the Chichester Festival Theatre, Private Lives with Edward
Woodward and Michelle Dotrice, and designing for a host of national and
international artists including Dame Thora Hird, Sir Harry Secombe, June
Bronhill, Sylvia Sims, Alfred Marks, Bob Grant and Hugh Lloyd.
With degrees in Italian, Art History and Arts Education, William has combined his professional practice with academia and retired from his last position as Senior Lecturer in Stage Design at the University of Southern Queensland to return to Tasmania. Since then he has designed Peter Pan, A Slice of Saturday Night and The Wind in the Willows for Hobart Rep and musicals for St Michael’s Collegiate School and The Friends’ School.
TREVOR
BALL - Stage Manager
Trevor
has been involved with both Hobart Rep and Mainstage Productions for some
10 years. This has been in various roles including various backstage crew
roles and lighting, and then his wealth of management experience naturally
led him to Assistant Stage Manager and Stage Manager roles. He has worked
on shows such as On our Selection, Mass Appeal, Lion
in Winter, And Then There Were None, Peter Pan
and Wait until Dark.
Trevor has worked with Leiz and Allan on several shows, most recently as Stage Manager for the highly successful Wind in the Willows at the Playhouse last year. He is very pleased and excited to again be working with the Directors and many of their usual production team as well as to be taking charge of the show’s running at the wonderful Theatre Royal.
Shauna-Lee has been involved in theatre for a couple of years, most recently as Stage Manager for Hobart Rep’s Spider's Web. She has worked backstage on shows such as And Then There Were None, The Wind in the Willows and Stepping Out and performed in Peter Pan. Shauna-Lee has enjoyed working with Leiz and Allan previously, along with a number of other cast and crew members of Beauty and the Beast, and is relishing the opportunity to work in Tasmania's treasured Theatre Royal.
DARREN
SANGWELL - Assistant Production Manager
Darren is an experienced actor, singer, teacher and director. He currently
teaches drama and dance at Rose Bay High School and tutors at React Drama
School and Class Act Music Theatre. Recently he was Associate Director
of Cats and Co-Director of the 2008 Uni Revue Kevin 007.
Darren
will soon start work as the Director of The 25th Annual Putnam County
Spelling Bee for Hobart Rep and The Pirates of Penzance
for Hobart College, both being staged in early 2009. When he is not teaching
or directing he tours Queensland and Tasmania as Elwood in The Blues Brothers
Revival Band.
Sandie performed in Hospital revues for seven years, but upon her return to theatre eight years ago she decided it was much more fun working behind the scenes – and she did not have to remember lines! She has been involved in set dressing, painting, properties, and general stage management for the Old Nick Company, ExitLeft and twelve Hobart Rep productions. Sandie’s love of musical theatre has seen her on the production team for Grease, For the Term of his Natural Life, The Sound of Music, Les Misérables, Aspects of Love, Into the Woods, Annie, RENT and Cats, for which she was “Assistant to Debra Byrne”.
Andrea first put her needle and thread together as a seamstress sewing orphan costumes for the G&S Society’s production of Oliver! in 2000. She subsequently became the costume coordinator for the Centenary of Federation Concert and seamstress for Peter Richman's Class Act Juniors in 2002. ExitLeft’s productions of Les Misérables, Allo Allo, Annie, The Sound of Music and Are You Being Served? have all seen Andrea assisting with costumes, props and backstage work. Andrea loves theatre and feels blessed to be a part of Hobart's theatre community – but she is happy to remain working behind the scenes rather than on stage!
LUCY
WILKINS - Hair & Make-up Design
At the tender age of 15 years Lucy seems destined for a life in the theatre.
The dilemma for her is which area of theatre she should focus her attention.
Lucy has won awards for her costume design (Apex Teenage Fashion Awards
– Fantasy section); as an actress in the Clarence Eisteddfods and was
taken from her year 8 class to do the hair and makeup for the Rose Bay
High School year 9/10 production of the musical Alison. Lucy’s
greatest inspiration and heroine is the fabulously divine Bette Midler.
Her greatest dream would be to design costumes for Miss Midler and be
one of her Harlettes. It was a great honour for Lucy to be asked and indeed
trusted to do the hair, make-up and some costumes (Mrs Potts) for Beauty
and the Beast. She has enjoyed the challenge and the results speak
for themselves.
This page is published by The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Tasmania and JHR Productions Pty Ltd and was last updated on 12 September 2008.