InterAct Theatre Company to Premiere UNCANNY VALLEY, 4/3-25

InterAct Theatre Company continues its 2014/2015 season of world premieres with Uncanny Valley by Thomas Gibbons. The second of four National New Play Network rolling world premieres, Uncanny Valley is directed by InterAct's Producing Artistic Director Seth Rozin and features local actors Sally Mercer and Frank X (last seen in Permanent Collection). The show runs April 3-April 26 at The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom Street. Opening Night is Wednesday, April 8 at 7:00 pm. Tickets cost between $22-38 and are available online at www.interacttheatre.org/season/uncanny-valley/, at the box office, or by phone at 215-568-8079.

Set in 2050, Uncanny Valley is about Julian - the newest advancement in artificial intelligence. Created by a life-extension laboratory, Julian's sole purpose is to receive the consciousness of a dying billionaire. Claire - a 70 year-old scientist who has devoted her life to pioneering artificial intelligence -- must teach Julian how to be human. But who - or what - has been created? As Julian's training progresses, it becomes clear that he is not exactly the blank slate Claire imagined. From the ingenious mind behind Permanent Collection, comes a piercing look at humanity's desire for immortality and the eerie feeling that we may be crossing a dangerous precipice

Thomas Gibbons is playwright-in-residence at InterAct, which has premiered eight of his plays: Pretending to America, 6221, Axis Sally, Black Russian, Bee-luther-hatchee, Permanent Collection, A House With No Walls, and Silverhill. His newest play, Uncanny Valley, is being produced in a rolling world premiere through the National New Play Network. His plays have been seen at the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, off-off-Broadway at Blue Heron Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Florida Stage, Unicorn Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, New Repertory Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Center Stage, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Kirk Douglas Theatre/Center Theater Group, Aurora Theatre, Madison Repertory Theatre, Roundhouse Theatre, and many others. He is the recipient of seven playwriting fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Roger L. Stevens Award from The Fund for New American Plays, the Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwriting Award, the NAACP Theatre Award, two Barrymore Awards for Outstanding New Play, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.

Funded by the National New Play Network, NNPN's flagship initiative, the Continued Life of New Plays Fund supports three or more theaters that choose to mount the same new play within a 12-month period. The result is an NNPN rolling world premiere in which a playwright develops a new work with multiple creative teams in at least three different communities. Uncanny Valley is being produced by the Contemporary American Theater Festival, San Diego Repertory Theatre, and Capital Stage.