newTACTics New Play Festival 2014

 

Uncanny Valley by Thomas Gibbons

Directed by Lauren Miller
Featuring: Nora Chester and Anthony Roach

Claire, a neuroscientist, contends with her own mind while she teaches Julian, a non-biological being, how to be human. Julian gains an extraordinary humanity, or perhaps merely a simulation of it, but he crosses a boundary when Claire’s personal life is placed at the mercy of Julian’s free will. In this terse and compelling drama, the creator and her creation peer over the edge of the Uncanny Valley to confront the inherent unpredictability of consciousness.

 

A Public Education by Jeff Talbott

Directed by Wes Granton
Featuring: Ephraim Birney, Ted Koch, Kelly McAndrew, Will Rogers, Liv Rooth, and Heather Alicia Simms.

Luke Paxton is the new guy in the faculty room and he can’t wait to get started.  But between his fellow teachers, a troubled student and some really nasty things being said on the Internet, it’s hard for anybody to concentrate on classes.  This is the world of A Public Education, a timely comic drama where the big question is: who is really getting schooled?

 

Alabama Story by Kenneth Jones

Directed by Karen Azenberg
FeaturingCorey Allen, Seth Andrew Bridges, Torsten Hillhouse, Bill Nabel, Lesley Shires, and Kay Walbye

A children’s picture book about a white rabbit marrying a black rabbit stirs the passions of a segregationist senator and a librarian in 1959 Montgomery, just as the Civil Rights movement is flowering. Inspired by true events, Alabama Story puts co-workers, star-crossed lovers and one frisky children’s author on the same page to conjure a Deep South of the imagination.

ntt14_5The Wonderful Mr. & Mrs. O’Leary by Matte O’Brien

Directed by David Alpert
Featuring: Aaron Ramey, Alice Ripley, Sebastian Hedges Thomas, and Cassidy VanVonno

Ellie and Patrick McDowell are a pair of restless siblings who occupy themselves by navigating their mother’s insecurities, her latest boyfriend’s shifting moods, and the doldrums of their small Louisiana town. All hope of escaping the reality of their situation seems lost until an after-school job materializes – babysitting for The Wonderful Mr. & Mrs. O’Leary. This darkly comic play reveals the power of imagination in the indefinite space between childhood and adulthood.