Company History

STRANGE ATTRACTOR was Aram Alan Aghazarian, Jed Hancock-Brainerd, Rebecca Noon and Roblin Gray Davis. The four met in 2006 while studying in London at LISPA and united as a company in 2009 when Davis invited the other three to his home in Juneau, AK to perform in a production of Eurydice he was directing at Perseverance Theater. “As long as you’re going to be here,” he proposed, “why not use the studio space to make something on our own?”

The four found a kind of rare artistic play and adventure together that they wanted to keep exploring, and so began Strange Attractor — a company dedicated to creating inviting and unexpected performance that challenged the popular conception of theatre with original, physically devised work.

Though Davis lived in Juneau, Aghazarian in Philadelphia, PA and Noon + Hancock-Brainerd in Providence, RI, the four made several shows by continuing what Davis started: finding space and resources that could amount to residencies in their home communities that would support new play development. For months out of the year they would live in Juneau together, then maybe Providence, then back to Juneau and then to Philly while they built one show that eventually toured. The itinerary depended on the logic of the show, their lives and the opportunities. Davis would fundraise and support everyone coming to Alaska, Noon + Hancock-Brainerd would figure out how to swing everyone being in RI, Aghazarian would play host and connector in Philly. In the most unlikely of ways, for several years, they created one identity across their three homes by making some really weird and wonderful plays with their communities.

Over the years the hard edges of life caught up with them all, and being able to support that kind of transience became less possible. Noon + Hancock-Brainerd had always created additional shows that they branded as Strange Attractor, and so even when it became difficult to create in multiple cities, there was work happening in Rhode Island.

Somewhere around 2016 company meetings got fewer and farther between. While they still thought of themselves as a company, Jed and Rebecca made theatrical happenings in Rhode Island as Strange Attractor while Roblin and Aram pursued different creative projects in Philly and Juneau. They all thought someday they’d make something together again, but the opportunities and ideas never quite worked out.

Eventually Strange Attractor became entirely led by Noon + Hancock-Brainerd as they increasingly created work that felt less like “plays” and more like pageants, happenings, tours, and hauntings. They dug into the histories of their home and sought to involve as many Rhode Islanders as they could in the making of new memories in familiar places.

Last year Noon asked the other three company members if Strange Attractor could be put to rest in order to see what grows next. We’re leaving this site up as an archive of an incredible decade of making impossible ideas real. If you are the type who wonders how it happens, we hope this site provides endless exploration. We tried to document not just the outcomes, but the process.

None of this could have happened with just four people. Over the decade there are countless collaborators who joined projects, putting faith, passion and talent into a kind of relentless world-building beyond what most art demands. By digging through this archive you will no doubt meet these other collaborators, but here we need to give heaps of gratitude to a few real ride-or-dies.

Casey Seymour Kim and Clara Weishahn were integral to some of Strange Attractor’s most iconic works. Though they were never technically in the company, in terms of labor, influence and heart, they absolutely were.

We also want to give a shout out to fellow LISPAns AnaMirtha Gutierriez and Kamili Feelings who joined us when we were just figuring stuff out; Lightning Rod Special who stuck with us company-to-company for three years while we made one relentless piece of science fiction; Nicky Mariani who stage managed works that few people could wrap their heads around and made us look and feel legit; Emily Shapiro who doesn’t think she’s a theater-maker, but developed essential design and bespoke objects for previously-unknown universes; Andy Russ whose collaboration as a sound and lighting designer strayed outside those lanes in the best way; Jeremy Radtke who offered indelible lessons in technical design without a theater background; Perseverance Theater in Juneau who gave us our first several opportunities to be together; and all the funders, donors, audiences, and believers who joined us for a decade of invention.

We’ve loved seeing this idea of Strange Attractor become something real. We are sad to see it go, but take courage in knowing that it happened. Each of the four of us continue to make art and events in our homes. We are easily google-able and hope you join us along the way.