Emmy-Nominated Uncanny Alley: A New Day Extends Live VRChat Run Through August 27

Live, interactive VRChat production recognized by the Television Academy as it wraps a limited run through August 27

The Television Academy has nominated Uncanny Alley: A New Day for Outstanding Emerging Media Program, putting the scrappy, artist-led immersive theater piece up against studio-backed entries from Amazon, Blumhouse, Meta and Bethesda Games.

Created by Ferryman Collective and Virtual Worlds Company inside VRChat, Uncanny Alley: A New Day isn’t something audiences watch so much as walk into. The production blends theater, cinema and shared virtual world-building, dropping small groups of up to six audience members into a live performance where two actors play 15 characters in real time. Rather than sitting back, audiences talk directly to those performers and move through the world alongside them, with the story shifting based on who shows up.

The piece grew out of a virtual universe built by Rick Treweek (aka MetaRick) of Virtual Worlds Company, a South African studio, in collaboration with Ferryman Collective, based in the U.S. Ferryman co-founders Stephen Butchko and Deirdre V. Lyons wrote and directed the piece, while technical director Christopher Lane Davis (aka Screaming Color) built out the environment and added original visual effects, music and live show controls.

Set in a cyberpunk world built in Unity and performed live in VRChat, the story opens with audiences locked up after protesting a looming system update called “New Day.” A hacker named Gh0st and her digital sidekick Puck break them out, launching a chase through a virtual world that swings between whimsical, dangerous and, according to the people who made it, surprisingly human.

Audience members in orange jumpsuits stand in a red-lit prison cell block in Uncanny Alley: A New Day.

“Set in a cyberpunk world built in Unity and performed live in VRChat, the story opens with audiences locked up after protesting a looming system update called ‘New Day.’”

“The magic of this piece is that it is alive,” said Ferryman Director of Development Whitton Frank. “The world may be virtual, but the connection is real. Every audience brings something different into the room, and we build the performance with them in real time.”

Since premiering at Venice Immersive, the production has played SXSW, Raindance Immersive, NewImages Festival in Paris (where it had its French-language premiere), Augmented World Expo and, most recently, SIGGRAPH, picking up multiple awards along the way. Ferryman and Virtual Worlds Company put combined visitor traffic to their VRChat worlds at nearly 750,000 — a number the teams compare to the average audience for a Broadway play.

The Emmy nomination lands in a category built for work that stretches storytelling past the edges of a traditional screen through immersion, interactivity and direct audience engagement — and the team behind Uncanny Alley: A New Day argues no other nominee builds a live theatrical experience around all three at once.

“The future of entertainment is not only being watched — sometimes it is being entered,” said Brendan Bradley, a Ferryman Collective performer.

To mark the nomination, Ferryman Collective and Virtual Worlds Company have extended Uncanny Alley: A New Day’s limited run through August 27. Audiences anywhere in the world can step into the Emmy-nominated production with a VR headset — Quest 3, Quest 3S, Quest Pro or PCVR all work — or watch a livestream on YouTube if they’d rather stay out of the headset. The show runs roughly 60 to 75 minutes.

More information and tickets are available at ferrymancollective.com/uncanny-alley.

Whether this nomination marks a turning point for social VR storytelling or just another step in its slow climb toward the mainstream, it’s a clear signal that live, shared virtual experiences are being taken seriously as their own storytelling form.

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