Lisa Asher Davis, Director

Lisa Asher Davis has served as Director of the Thomasville Music & Drama Troupe since 2009.  A classically trained soprano, music educator and seasoned professional entertainer, she is only the second director in the Troupe's 40-year history.

Lisa Davis earned her bachelor's degree in Music Education from Iowa's Simpson College and her master's degree in Music-Vocal Performance from Florida State University.  She has performed in title roles with opera companies across the country and performed in a televised opera production with renowned tenor Luciano Pavarotti.  As a concert artist, she has performed in countless venues, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall in New York, singing with the New York Chamber Orchestra, Philadelphia Chamber Symphony and Baltimore Choral Arts & Symphony, among many others.  She is a two-time winner of the Pavarotti International Voice Competition, and New York Times theatre critics have described her performance "light and clear of voice, perfect in every inflection and glance."

Lisa Davis has long experience training and coaching vocalists, including a number of years as Adjunct Professor of Music at Georgia Southwestern State University.  Prior to assuming her role of director, she worked alongside Fred Allen as vocal coach for small groups and ensembles for Troupe performances and served as Troupe's Associate Director for the 2008-09 season.

Fred Allen, Founder & Director Emeritus

In 1972, Fred and Winnie Allen, and their daughter, Allison, moved to Thomasville from New York where they had all worked as professional entertainers and performers. With 20 charter members, they formed a new group of singing teenaged entertainers they would call the Thomasville Music & Drama Troupe and began sharing skills he had gained from training at the world renowned Juilliard School, professional experience on the New York stage and a career as an artist and repertoire producer with RCA Records.

A Georgia native and graduate of LaGrange College where he earned degrees in Performance and Psychology, Fred Allen went on to earn his Master's Degree in Education from Auburn University and his Master's Degree in Sacred Music from Union Theological Seminary/Yale University Institute of Sacred Music.  He completed his doctoral work in Adolescent Psychology at New York's Columbia University and holds the Artist's Diploma from Juilliard, where he studied voice with Hans Heinz, the eminent authority on the tenor voice.

In founding the Thomasville Music & Drama Troupe, Fred Allen set out to create a vehicle through which he could share his talents and his experiences with area teenagers, give them the opportunity to learn first-hand about musical theatre and showcase their talents. Four decades later, he remains a valued member of the Troupe's artistic team.

Stephanie Hart, Junior Troupe & Outreach Coordinator

A certified music educator, Stephanie Hart is the newest addition to the Troupe's artistic team. 

A graduate of Alabama's Samford University with a degree in Music Education, she comes to Troupe from central Florida, where she was director of the Indian Trails Middle School chorus program and musical director of Broadway Blazers, a successful musical theatre program there. A positive, enthusiastic young musician and teacher, she will bring additional focus on the teaching of singing to the program for both Junior Troupe and Troupe members.

 Dana Willis, Choreographer

Dana Willis brings more than 20 years of experience as a dance educator to her role as Troupe Choreographer.  A native of Cairo, she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance from Birmingham Southern College, with a minor in Business.

Well versed in tap, jazz, ballet, lyrical, theatre and hip hop styles of dance, she opened the Off Broadstreet Centre for the Dance Arts in 1993 and founded The F.I.R.M. Dance Company in 1998.  Her dance companies have won numerous regional and national awards for performance and choreography, and she is sought after as choreographer for school and community theatre productions.