ABOUT US

MEET THE PRODUCERS

Four friends, two married couples, one great team. The Show Company’s four producers - Allan, Leiz, Mark and Petr - bring a broad and diverse set of management and creative skills to their roles. Together they have collaborated on a huge range of live performance events including concerts, variety shows and some of the most memorable and popular musical theatre shows to be staged in Tasmania.

Petr Diviš

Petr’s many qualifications include Honours degrees in law and music, reflecting his strengths in organisation, analysis and creativity. He’s worked as a director, musical director, performer and/or producer on nearly 60 theatre shows with additional experience including sound, lighting and set design. Having originally founded The Show Company in 2000, he has served as producer and musical director on all of its productions and appeared on stage in most of them. Petr’s work on Wicked earned him the 2017 Tasmanian Theatre Award for Best Musical Direction and he was part of the cast of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, winning the Best Ensemble award for Community Musical Theatre in 2016. Petr won the Arts, Heritage, Tourism and Events award at the 2022 Tasmanian Volunteering Awards, in recognition of his extensive service to the Theatre Council of Tasmania, including as President from 2020-22.

Allan Jeffrey

Allan has a passion for contemporary plays and musicals that engage and entertain audiences. With a background in social research and organisational behaviour, he is renowned for his ability to nurture effective working relationships in a team environment and deliver complex projects. Allan has harnessed these skills in producing and directing numerous theatre productions in Hobart and was recognised with the 2017 Tasmanian Theatre Award for Best Direction for his work on Wicked. Allan has worked with various organisations in strategic, creative and marketing roles including the Australian Script Centre and the Theatre Council of Tasmania. He is the managing director of human resources consultancy Jeffrey HR and in 2011 he co-founded the Musical Theatre Crew, a training school to develop young people’s musical theatre skills through performance.

Leiz Moore

Leiz has extensive theatrical and management expertise and experience. She is Co-Principal of Musical Theatre Crew, Hobart’s leading musical theatre and performance school, as well as Consulting Director at JeffreyHR, an organisational development and HR consultancy. Leiz’s wide theatrical experience includes working on countless shows as a producer, director, actor and costumier, and she has choreographed over 20 musical theatre productions. In 2021, Leiz was awarded the Tasmanian Theatre Awards ‘Champion Award - South’ for her outstanding work safely producing 3 sell-out productions in 2020. As a cast member of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change Leiz was recognised with the Best Ensemble award for Community Musical Theatre at the 2016 Tasmanian Theatre Awards. She has also won Best Actress awards from the Hobart Repertory Theatre Society and the Deloraine Drama Festival.

Mark Wójcik

With a background in finance and project management, Mark has been involved in Hobart theatre for many years, both on stage and in diverse production and creative roles behind the scenes. He is highly regarded for his attention to detail and capacity to manage and oversee major theatre projects. Mark has worked as an assistant director, production manager and performer on each of the productions presented by The Show Company at the Theatre Royal and he has many years of experience of performing in a wide variety of roles. Mark was previously involved in Polish Dance as a performer and teacher of the Polish National Dance Group ‘Oberek’ and he also trained as a dance instructor in Lublin, Poland. He has applied his choreography skills to a number of local theatre productions and has also worked as stage manager for several shows.

OUR STORY

The original Show Company was established by Petr Diviš in 2000 as a musical theatre troupe with a focus on modern repertoire. Comprised of 10 experienced theatre performers and a guitarist, its debut performance took place on the Theatre Royal stage followed by a full-length show, the song and dance spectacular ONE!, at the Peacock Theatre in December that year. The Show Company went on to perform at various concerts and special events around Tasmania before staging its sequel show ONE more! in 2003, with Mark Wójcik joining Petr as a co-producer and performer.

The Show Company’s successful partnership with friends and theatre makers Allan Jeffrey and Leiz Moore began in 2005 with the musical comedy revue Secrets Every Smart Traveller Should Know. It was followed two years later by the Stephen Sondheim comedy Company, which featured an expanded cast line-up for the first time.

2009 saw a move to the Playhouse Theatre and production on a larger scale with the hilarious and extremely popular Eurobeat – Almost Eurovision. The Show Company returned to the Playhouse in 2015 with I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, which earned four nominations at the 2016 Tasmanian Theatre Awards and won the ‘Errol’ for Best Ensemble in Community Musical Theatre.

In January 2017 The Show Company, Allan Jeffrey and Leiz Moore staged the Hobart premiere of Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz at the Theatre Royal. Widely hailed as “better than Broadway”, the production was an outstanding success on every level, playing to packed houses and earning a record-breaking 10 Tasmanian Theatre Awards nominations in Community Musical Theatre. Wicked went on to win the awards for Best Production, Best Direction (Allan Jeffrey), Best Musical Direction (Petr Diviš), Best Female Performance (Nicole Simms-Farrow) and Best Ensemble.

The staging of Wicked coincided with Petr, Mark, Leiz and Allan formally coming together as The Show Company Tasmania Pty Ltd to continue their shared vision of presenting entertaining theatre shows for the community and creating exciting opportunities for local performers and theatre makers to participate in quality productions.

Another smash-hit production at the Theatre Royal followed in 2018 with the Hobart premiere of Mary Poppins: The Broadway Musical, which was nominated for seven Tasmanian Theatre Awards in Community Musical Theatre and won Best Lighting Design (Gareth Kays) and Best Male Performance (Campbell Braithwaite). With the Theatre Royal undergoing refurbishment, The Show Company staged a small-scale production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee in May 2019, its first show at the Moonah Arts Centre.

In January 2020, The Show Company was delighted to celebrate its 20th anniversary with the Tasmanian Premiere production of the international smash-hit musical Mamma Mia! at the Theatre Royal.