Peter J. Hill

Originally from New York, Peter is the Artistic/Technical Director of the Fountain Hills Theater, where, under his (and an amazing Board and staff’s) guidance, the theater has grown from a small three-show season to a fully staffed venue with two theater facilities. FHT now boasts a six-show Mainstage season, 4-5 annual children’s theater productions, a successful Mainstage Too season, as well as year-round educational workshops and seminars. Peter has directed over 300 plays, musicals, commercials and industrial films, including the Southwest premieres of A Chorus Line, 42nd Street, ’night, Mother, Run for Your Wife, and Lend Me a Tenor.

As an actor, Peter has played roles ranging from Henry Higgins in the musical My Fair Lady to Antonio Salerie in Amadeus. He is proud to have shared the stage with Noel Harrison, Theodore Bikel, Buddy Ebsen, and Bill Daily among others. Peter is an accomplished playwright and has had the honor of having several of his plays optioned and produced including Ashes to Ashes, The Big Radio Broadcast of 1941, The Three Musketeers, Moby Dick, The Man Who Would Be King, Midsummer Dreamin, and A Christmas Carol– The Musical, as well as a series of Jukebox musicals, all of which have been nominated as Best Original Script by the AriZoni Awards. Most recently, his musical adaptation of The Great Gatsby premiered at FHT in March 2024, and received an ariZoni Award for Original Score, which he co-wrote with James Melberg.

For his work as director, designer, actor and author, Peter has won more ariZoni Awards for Theatrical Excellence than any other individual. He’s been a nominee for the Arizona Governor’s Arts Award. In 2009, he was awarded The Outstanding Contribution Award from the AriZoni Awards for his lifetime of dedication to Valley theater and in 2016 was inducted into the Lower Verde Valley Hall of Fame. For Noël.