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Industry Influencer


A life in entertainment


On a recent visit to the Holovis Demonstration Campus in the Midlands, UK, Park World editor Becci Knowles had the pleasure of speaking to creative director Peter Cliff about his background in the theatre and the impact it continues to have on his creative output today.


“ It was the


role I thought I would never get at 16 and I adored it.


G


rowing up just 30 miles away from Alton Towers, Peter always knew he wanted to work in a theme park, but he couldn’t quite see a way into it.


Already obsessed with the world of entertainment, he later took the acting path, but his fascination with the attractions industry never went away, “it was just a case of finding out how to marry the two,” he says. At 16 Peter went to college to study acting and business.


Around the same time, he got his first job at Alton Towers; entertaining the queue lines dressing up as pirates and the like, his dream career of creating theatre within the theme park context was, almost without him even realising it, already taking shape. Still keen to pursue a career in acting, Peter finished college and won a place at LIPA performing arts institute in Liverpool, where he embarked on a three-year acting degree. Life as a jobbing actor followed and there was plenty of work, so much so that he was often on tour for months at a time. Peter had achieved his objective – to become a


professional actor, but away from family and friends, working long hours and earning less than he had in unskilled roles he became increasingly frustrated. So, following his heart he went home, and returned to Alton Towers. Within six months an entertainment operations job came up, and it was his. “I knew the resort, I knew the people and I was always trying to come up with different ideas for shows,” he says. “But, as time passed, I faced the inevitable


42


question; ‘do I go back to acting, or do I do this?” His agent had work for him and he needed an answer - now. “The thing is, I’d found myself in a line of work I thought I’d never get into; so, I got rid of my agent and threw myself straight into operations; creating street shows, events, scripting, you name it.” At the age of 23, Peter was offered the role of creative


director for entertainment; “It was the best news ever,” he says, “it was the role I thought I would never get at 16 and I adored it.” Soon he was pitching concepts for events and working with designers and manufacturers on walk through attractions, helping them to blend the narrative with the senses and to keep the story moving. One of the highlights of the role was working on Scarefest and in particular, the closing show, a firework spectacular that ran across three nights, attended by 25,000 people each night. Rather than “just using pyrotechnics”, he brought in storyline actors and made sure there was a narrative running through it. “On opening night, I was terrified; I remember I was with my mum and dad and when the show closed and I heard the applause and looked around to see the joy on everyone’s faces I felt tears in my eyes. To see all those people and for that to be a moment for them was just incredible I’ll never forget it.” It wasn’t long before Peter took another gearshift, moving


from entertainment and shows into attraction design on a more full-time basis. This involved working on scare mazes and haunted houses – “essentially dark rides, but without a


JANUARY 2019





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