LUMEN Summer 2020 - Flipbook - Page 33
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Torben Brookman
“It's not like many vocational jobs where you work nine
to five, and when the office closes you go home and have
a separate life and do different things. In the theatre,
everything sort of merges and blends.”
“There was a production called The Music of
Andrew Lloyd Webber, which was a concert series
of Andrew’s great shows, which we put on at
the Great Hall of the People of Beijing, which
was and remains the Assembly Hall for the
Communist Party of China,” said Torben.
“It was in late September 2001 and we'd just
loaded in and started rehearsals for the show, then
with three hours’ notice, we had to start loading
everything out because the Party had called an
emergency meeting the following day to discuss
China's official position on the September 11
attacks,” he said.
In November 2004, while still working for The
Really Useful Group, Torben married his partner
Richelle. Immediately after, the couple left for
Shanghai as the company managers for the Asian
tour of The Phantom of the Opera.
The experience of touring Asia is what ultimately
led to the pair starting their own production
company with a couple of friends. They saw
enormous, untapped potential to grow the Asian
markets, China in particular.
“While we’ve done a number of things in
Australia and other territories, there’s always been
a long-term focus on developing China and keeping
those relationships throughout Asia,” he said.
The growth of the market in China also enabled
GWB Entertainment to take on more shows,
provide work opportunities for South Australian
artists, crew members and musicians, and develop
young, local talent for the world stage.
“Our business is really an interesting combination
of different elements of the industry that we hope
add up to more than the sum of their parts, and
provide real potential to develop work here that
hasn't really existed before, not within the musical
theatre genre,” said Torben.
ALUMNI MAGAZINE - SUMMER 2020
31
