25 things you may not know about the Frankston Arts Centre

Published on 21 May 2020

The Frankston Arts Centre was built to be a cultural heart of the area, playing a vital role in supporting the arts and providing a quality venue for the community to enjoy. Over the last 25 years, many millions of people have visited the FAC and have fond memories to share… but we thought we’d have some fun by sharing some of the lesser known facts about the building and it’s various performance, gallery, backstage and venue spaces.

1. The FAC was built by the renowned Australian Architect, Daryl Jackson AO. Other prominent projects by Jackson include the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre, County Court of Victoria and the Immigration Museum Melbourne.

2. When it opened, it was claimed Frankston Arts Centre had the second biggest stage in Victoria after the State Theatre at Arts Centre Melbourne.

3. Frankston Arts Centre was opened by the then PM, His Hon Paul Keating. (Cube 37 was opened in 2001 by the then Prime Minister, His Hon. John Howard.)

4. There are 19 permanent full-time or part-time staff that work at Frankston Arts Centre and 50 regular casual staff. Of the 19 permanent staff, 15% are identical twins compared to just 0.45% in the general population.

5. Frankston Arts Centre sent their first email on the same day that Hugh Jackman performed here for Musical Matinees (now known as Daytime Music + Theatre).

6. Although there are no ghosts at Frankston Arts Centre, there is an urban legend that one of the construction workers lost a thumb during the build… so we may have a ghostly digit lurking in the walls.

7. In the first year of operation, Frankston Arts Centre achieved a turnover of a 1 million dollars.

8. When Frankton Arts Centre was opened it was called the Frankston Cultural Centre. The name change occurred in 2001.

9. About 30% of our patrons are from Frankston City municipality with visitors from mainly South East Melbourne and the Peninsula making up the rest of the audience.

10. Approximately 54% of tickets sold online.

11. Approx 130,000 tickets sold per year.

12. Not necessarily a Frankston Arts Centre specific fact, but one of our favourite words is 'chookas'. Its bad luck to say 'good luck' so we often say ‘chookas’ - this stems from Shakespearian theatre where if you sold out the show you would be able to afford/be given a luscious chicken dinner

13. To make the theatre technical services work in the background, there is over 60km of cabling installed, including: Audio, Fibre Optic, DMX, Network & Video

14. In 2017 the Centre became part of the Itinerary of the BIENALSUR in Argentina. It was shown in a global map and an Itinerary Booklet, alongside other international Performing Arts Centres. With Mona (BIENALSUR 2019) we are the only Australian centre selected to participate at the Latin American Biennale.

15. There are service tunnels that you can walk/climb through on both the East and West side walls of the building.

16. The house curtain weighs 480kg.

17. The building spans a total of 10 stories high from its lowest point in the level 1 carpark to its highest point on the top of the flytower.

18. The theatre has 62 flylines, which requires over 2700 metres of rope to make it fully operational.

19. The theatre fly system can handle up to 20 tonnes hanging from it at maximum capacity.

20. The distance between the stage floor and the flytower grid floor is 19 metres, 23 metres to the flytower roof.

21. The theatre lighting system has 228 dimmers, which when fully loaded is capable of drawing 2280amps of power or around 750A of three phase power. Most domestic houses run at 50amps – so we can utilise the same amount of power as around 45 houses – just for lighting.

22. FAC site (including the library) has an electrical substation on site which connects to the power grid, FAC can draw up to a maximum of 2000A of 3phase (415v) or 6000A of 240v (enough to power 120 domestic houses!)

23. The orchestra pit takes 5 mins to travel up or down between the stage and the band room and has a maximum load capacity of 6 tonnes.

24. The orchestra pit can be raised to 200mm above the normal stage level to match up with a custom show deck if required.

25. Another theatre phrase we are fond is 'Break a leg'. The term ‘Break a leg’ is from the old days of theatre where you would only get paid for a performance if you actually went on stage. The legs are the long curtains on either side of the stage hiding the wings, so if you were fortunate enough to 'break a leg' and make it onstage you would get paid. At the moment we are so looking forward to breaking a leg! This waiting in the wings for Act 2 to begin is taking a while…