Ben Apfelbaum

QTOPIA AND THE LAUNCH OF THE LOADING DOCK THEATRE

Carly Fisher, David Polson, Johan van Vloten, Michael Kirby, John Graham MP

John Graham, Minister for the Arts
Michael Kirby & husband Johan van Vloten
CEO Greg Fisher
Carly Fisher, Artistic Director Loading Dock Theatre

In a piece of irony, the old Darlinghurst Police Station, which held many LGBTQI activists was transformed in to the largest museum of queer History, culture and creativity in the world.

As well as outlining queer history from the colonial times to more recent protests and activism,it also features an intimate theatre which was launched by QTopia’s patron the Hon Michael Kirb. He also announced that due to the change in the laws that he recently married his long time partner Johan van Vloten who have been in  a relationship for over fifty years.

Minister for the Arts John Graham was on hand to indicate his government’s support and curator Carly Fisher outlined a series of year long plays which will premiere at the Loading Dock Theatre and the Bandstand venue in Green Park, Darlinghurst.

The Taylor Square Darlinghurst substation will open to the public for the first time in thirty years and will also feature an intimate theatre.

The first play in the Loading Dock season will be Michael Gow’s A TOY SYMPHONY which runs from the 18th to the 27th April. 

Performers from the production entitled A GAY ESCAPADE, which will open at the Loading Dock in late August, entertained the launch audience with a song from this musical.

Text and photos by Ben Apfelbaum

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.