FIVARS 2025 Spotlight on "Uncanny Alley: A New Day"

“Uncanny Alley: A New Day” is a live VR performance that blurs the line between theatre and simulation. Strange, funny, and eerily familiar, it invites you into a world where identity glitches and every new day resets the rules. Let’s hear from the creators!

What lead to the creation of this piece?

Ferryman Collective Deirdre Lyons and I (Stephen Butchko) toured Rick Treweek’s (of Virtual Worlds Company) cyberpunk VRChat world Uncanny Alley during the 2022 Raindance Immersive festival and immediately fell in love with the dystopic themes and dark, whimsical style of his digital world.

We had plotted to asking Rick if he’d be interested in collaborating with our team to bring his digital world to life as an interactive theatrical piece and he beat us to it after he attended a performance of our show Gumball Dreams; he asked me if we “ever saw anyone else’s world and wanted to do anything with it?” It was then that our collaboration began.

What was the production process for you and your team? What did you learn?

Rick is based in Cape Town, while our team is spread across Los Angeles and Taipei, so navigating time zones became an important part of our workflow. To stay aligned, Deirdre (Assistant Director) and I developed a visual shorthand using Miro, creating templates that guided Rick in building a new world map as the story and script evolved. We continued to layer in functionality and detail throughout the process; Rick’s years of game and world creation were invaluable through production. Toward the end, Whitton Frank of Ferryman Collective toured the world and provided feedback, while Screaming Color contributed stunning particle effects, animations, sound design, and an original score. Rick then finalized the remaining details, and we invited test audiences in to see if everything held together.

Virtual Theatre comes to life where cinema, theatre and gaming meet. With each production we continue to streamline the experience from onboarding to how the audience-participants interact with the actors, each other and how they interact with the digital world. Working with Rick allowed us to take advantage of his skill sets of gamification and optimization which taught us ways to share much larger, fuller stories than we thought were possible, given today’s limitations with VR technology.

How did you become an immersive media content creator and why?

Deirdre and Whitton had been performing in the Tender Claws game The Under Presents. When COVID locked the world down, Brian Tull (Under Presents and horror enthusiast) expressed a desire to build an interactive haunted house in VR. Deirdre, Brian, Braden Roy and I began experimenting with interactive and immersive performance in VR and from that, Ferryman Collective was born.

Christopher Lane Davis (Screaming Color) soon joined the team, followed by Whitton Frank. Braden and Brian have since moved on to work on their own creations and we are still going. The realization of how powerful the medium of VR can be has allowed us to connect with a worldwide audience and build a global community of storytellers, remotely and in person.

What is the VR/AR industry like in your region?

In Los Angeles, the XR industry and community is vibrant and growing, in spite of the struggles that many of us share with funding, etc. There are regular meetups that bring us XR types together within the film/TV, technology, educational and theatre worlds. The evolution of technology is bringing all genres of storytelling together; it’s an exciting time to be here.

What do you have planned for the future?

We will be experimenting with additional ways of distributing our work using new tool sets, planning on a full public run of all of our shows and continuing to build relationships and fund raise with our new 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.

What would you like to share with fellow content creators and/or the industry?

The field is wide open and it is an ideal time and place for creators and storytellers to experiment with technology that is very quickly becoming integral to the way we distribute and consume art and entertainment. I encourage artists to join our growing community be part of the evolution of story-living.

Do you think VR festivals like FIVARS are important?

Yes, I absolutely believe VR festivals like FIVARS are incredibly important. Festivals like FIVARS provide a vital gathering space—both physically and remotely—for XR creators and festival participants to experience cutting-edge storytelling, exchange ideas, and collaborate. They are an essential platform for showcasing the latest innovations in immersive media and help elevate the voices of artists experimenting with new modes of storytelling.

These festivals are not only about celebrating artistic achievement—they’re about shaping the future of the medium itself. For many creators, they are the best way to gain momentum and visibility, getting their work in front of audiences, journalists, and curators who can help amplify their vision. In a field where access to technology can still be a major barrier, festivals like FIVARS play a crucial role in making this emerging art form more accessible and visible.

Just as traditional film festivals are integral to the success of cinema, VR festivals are arguably even more essential for immersive media. They give creators the opportunity to explore, experiment, and connect, ultimately helping to create the future of storytelling.