This study addresses the central question of how Brisbane's La Boite Theatre negotiated its transformation from an amateur repertory society to an established professional company and, despite set-backs and crises, survived, changed and developed in an unbroken line of theatrical activity from its genesis in1925 to 2003. To answer the question, La Boite's history is surveyed within its three status modes of amateur, 'pro-am', and professional. Effective artistic and organizational leadership and a set of key manifestations of effective leadership are identified as crucial to the company's successful transformational journey. Such a transformation is a distinctive achievement in Australian repertory theatre history and, in exploring it, this study makes an original and important contribution to the history of Australian theatre organizations, very few of which have been the subject of scholarly research.