SAG and Independent Spirit Award winner and multiple Drama Desk Award nominee Paul Sparks has joined Samuel D. Hunter’s Grangeville, a Signature-commissioned world premiere directed by Jack Serio. Sparks replaces Brendan Fraser, who must step away due to unforeseen circumstances. Performances take place February 4–March 16 at Signature Theatre.
Grangeville also features Brian J. Smith (Film and TV: The Matrix Resurrections, Sense8; Theater: The Glass Menagerie, The Columnist, Three Changes), acclaimed and Tony-nominated for his performance in the Broadway revival of The Glass Menagerie.
Grangeville marks a return to Signature for Sparks, following his acclaimed roles in the company’s productions of Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo, by Edward Albee (2018), and Landscape of the Body, by John Guare (2006). He was last seen on a New York theater stage in the 2023 Theatre for a New Audience production of Waiting for Godot, directed by Arin Arbus, opposite Michael Shannon. Vinson Cunningham of The New Yorker wrote, “In [their] hands, the play becomes what it has always been: a thrilling, melancholy, comic slice of life on earth.”
Grangeville takes its title from the remote Idaho town of the same name. Across a void of thousands of miles and oceans of hurt, two half-brothers tentatively reconnect over the care of their ailing mother. Sparks plays Jerry, the older sibling—belligerent as a teenager, sensitive as an adult—who still lives in Grangeville, while Smith plays Arnold, an artist now living in Rotterdam, drawn back into his past. Their remote connection—over the phone, over video chat, with fragments of their respective contexts audible and visible to one another—collapses their physical distance while underscoring just how many social worlds apart they are. In this emotionally gripping new play, Hunter explores the fallibility of memory, the stories we tell to make sense of our suffering, and the complexity of forgiveness.
Grangeville is the second world premiere in Samuel D. Hunter’s Signature Premiere Residency. It follows A Case for the Existence of God (2022), which Jesse Green, in a New York Times Critic’s Pick review, called a “must-see heartbreaker of a play.”
Featuring three Signature commissions (Hunter’s Grangeville, Dominique Morisseau’s immensely lauded Bad Kreyòl, and Melis Aker’s Fish) and one revisitation of a beloved previous work (Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice, May 13–June 22, 2025), Signature’s 2024/25 season showcases the organization’s support for writers at multiple phases of careers. Across its three residency models—all represented in works presented this season—Signature offers playwrights a sustained, nurturing site for the evolution of their art, deepening audiences’ relationships to these singular visions over the course of numerous productions.
About Paul Sparks (Jerry)
Paul Sparks can now be seen in Jeff Nichols’ film The Bikeriders for 21st Century Fox. Other films on the horizon include Michael Shannon’s directorial debut Eric Larue, and Lost On a Mountain In Maine, based on the best-selling biography of the same name. Paul most recently shot season 3 of the Apple TV+ series “Physical” opposite Rose Byrne. Additional series credits include “Joe Pickett” and “Waco” for Paramount+, Stephen Kings’ “Castlerock” for Hulu, HBO’s “The Night Of” and “Boardwalk Empire,” Netflix’s “House Of Cards,” Starz’ “The Girlfriend Experience” and “Sweetbitter,” plus feature films The Lovebirds, The Greatest Showman, and Midnight Special. Sparks is also a lauded theatre actor; his distinguished work on stage has earned him six Drama Desk Awards nominations in collaboration with some of theatre’s brightest playwrights: Adam Rapp, Craig Wright, and Stephen Belber. He most recently appeared on stage opposite Michael Shannon in Waiting for Godot for TFANA, as well as in Grey House on Broadway, directed by Joe Mantello.
