It began with a group of trainee teachers and a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, but more than six decades later, PLOS Musical Productions is about to bring the sound of 1960’s New Jersey to the Frankston Arts Centre stage – and then hand the torch to a new generation.
The Peninsula Light Operatic Society, as it was first known, was born in 1962 at what was then Frankston Teachers College (now part of the Monash University network). Student teachers with a love of performance came together, staged Iolanthe, and set something in motion that nobody could have predicted would still be running more than sixty years on.
The name has changed, the venues have changed, and the repertoire has evolved dramatically, but the DNA remains the same: talented people from across Melbourne and the peninsula, working together to put something extraordinary on stage.
“The change of names reflects the evolution of the company and shows presented,” says Brett Wingfield, the company’s Secretary and a Life Member whose involvement stretches back decades. In 1995, after members had spent years informally calling it PLOS anyway, the committee finally made it official, dropping ‘Light Operatic’ and becoming PLOS Musical Productions. The new name signalled what audiences had already noticed – this was a company that had outgrown Gilbert and Sullivan and was reaching for Broadway.
The journey from university recital room to one of the area’s premier stages is a story of ambition meeting pragmatism. For years, PLOS performed at the George Jenkins Theatre in Frankston, but the search for better facilities with a proper rehearsal space, set storage, and technical capability, was constant. In 1985, members built their own home: a workshop and rehearsal base on Overport Road at Overport Park in Frankston that was promptly and affectionately christened ‘The Shed’.
Then came the announcement that changed everything. Frankston City Council was building a major theatre and cultural centre on Davey Street. PLOS pledged $10,000 to the project, and in 1995 opened the new Frankston Cultural Centre (now the Frankston Arts Centre) with a production of West Side Story. The Green Room was officially named the PLOS Green Room in recognition of the company’s contribution. This year, PLOS marked thirty years at the venue.
“The venue changes were instrumental in the progress of the company,” says Brett, “meaning better facilities and technical possibilities for the audiences and performers.”
The musicals have been major. Running the eye down PLOS’s production history is like reading a greatest-hits list of the musical theatre canon: My Fair Lady, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, Chicago, West Side Story, Mamma Mia, Shrek, We Will Rock You, and earlier this year, The Wizard of Oz. The company typically stages two productions a year and draws membership from right across the Melbourne metropolitan area and the peninsula.
A single production involves up to 130 people in the theatre alone, both onstage and behind the scenes, with more involved in the months of set construction and costume creation beforehand. Rehearsals run twelve to sixteen weeks, up to three times a week, fitted around the everyday lives of people with jobs, families, and commutes. Then, in a compressed technical period at the FAC, it all comes together. “The biggest challenge is bringing it all together at the theatre over a five-day period,” says Brett.
The biggest challenge is bringing it all together at the theatre over a five-day period
For Jersey Boys, opening at the FAC on 24 July, PLOS has turned to a creative team who know the company and each other well. Director Paul Watson, musical director Nathan Firmin and choreographer Venessa Paech have collaborated on PLOS productions including The Boy From Oz (2023) and We Will Rock You (2025). They’re an established trio whose shared shorthand is a real asset when the task is recreating the specific sound and swagger of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons.
That sound is no small challenge. Jersey Boys traces four kids from the streets of New Jersey – Tommy DeVito, Nick Massi, Bob Gaudio and Frankie Valli – and their improbable rise to global stardom. Jesse Thomas takes on the role of the magnetic Tommy DeVito, Ryan Etlis makes his PLOS debut as the unobtrusive Nick Massi, while Jordan Poyser returns as the songwriting genius Bob Gaudio and Dean Di Cristo, makes his PLOS debut as Frankie Valli.
The music they’ll be performing needs no introduction: Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Walk Like a Man, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You. They’re songs that audiences of every age already know before they take their seats. Wingfield says one of the great pleasures of this production has been “seeing the younger cast and team members come to love a whole new style of music.”
Funding a production of this scale on community theatre resources requires creativity as well as passion. Ticket sales form the core of PLOS’s income, supplemented by hiring out the company’s considerable stock of costumes and sets to schools and other theatre companies. Sponsors including Bendigo Bank
Mt Eliza help bridge the gap as production costs continue to rise.
What comes next for PLOS represents something entirely new. In January 2027, the company will stage its inaugural Next Generation production – Grease – specifically designed for performers aged fourteen to twenty-four, at the FAC. The creative team is experienced PLOS hands: director Brad Fischer, musical directors Sue Fletcher and Malcom Huddle, and choreographers Hayley Moseley and Cassie Pennicuik. Many of them began their own PLOS journeys as young performers.
“The Next Generation productions are an opportunity to involve young performers in productions and have them develop and get involved in the company,” says Brett. The design is deliberate: mentored by experienced company members, Next Generation performers will develop skills and networks that open the door to the main PLOS company in the future.
It is, perhaps, the most fitting expression of what this company has always been about. The trainee teachers who gathered at Frankston in 1962 were, in their own way, doing the same thing – creating a space where people could grow through doing something they loved.
Jersey Boys plays the Frankston Arts Centre from 24 July to 1 August 2026. Tickets via thefac.com.au.
As published in Peninsula Essence Magazine
