Aral Gribble, a distinguished actor and teaching artist with over 25 years of experience, joins us to illuminate the intricacies of the performing arts. We delve into his extensive background, including his time at the University of Michigan and his diverse roles in esteemed theaters. His passion for storytelling is palpable, and he shares insights from his journey, from stage to screen.

Related Podcast: Trollin' the Mitten

Website: LCC Digital Media, Audio and Cinema Program

Website: OpenSpot Theatre

Website: Michigan Film Industry Association

--------------------------------------

Facebook: Front Row, Backstage

Instagram: Front Row, Backstage

YouTube: Front Row, Backstage

Welcome to Front Row Backstage, the show that takes you behind the velvet ropes of the media world.

I'm LCC student Greg Trimmer, and each week we'll explore the stars you see on screen, stage and radio, and the tech and talent making the magic happen behind it.

From unsung heroes to spotlight sensations, we've got the stories you won't hear anywhere else.

So grab your popcorn and let's dive in.

Welcome, guys.

Hey, guys.

Today we're joined by the incredible Errol Gribble.

A professional actor and teaching artist with over 25 years of experience.

Errol studied theater performance at the University of Michigan and has dedicated his career to both performing on stage teaching aspiring actors.

He worked with a range of organizations, from youth theaters to community centers, and taught countless private lessons.

Errol's impressive stage credits include performances with renowned theaters like the Purple Rose Theater, Meadowbrook Theater, and the Detroit Repertory Theater.

He's also an accomplished film and television actor, appearing in projects like Dial a Prayer alongside Brittany Snow and William H.

Macy.

Whether on stage, screen, or in the classroom, Errol's passion for storytelling and his commitment to his craft truly shine.

Let's dive into his journey and hear about the incredible work he's done.

And by the way, it's a beautifully.

Written, very nice intro.

By the way, he.

He also happens to be another one of our LCC Connect podcast hosts.

That's right.

LCC student in the DMACC program.

Yes, sir.

Fellow host of a podcast.

The only comedy podcast, although I don't know.

Well, yours is a little bit of everything.

Mine is kind of.

Yeah, well, it's all over the place.

You guys know we're deep in this now.

This is.

I don't even know what episode this is.

Comedy, drama, horror.

Hopefully this will be the horror episode of.

But, yeah, he hosts Trolling the Mitten.

Trolling the Mitten.

Very weird show, but very funny and amazing.

Yeah, for those folks listening at home, you should check it out.

You should check out all LCC Connect podcasts, especially if you love lcc.

But Troll in the Mitten I think, is like, front row backstage.

It sort of has a wider audience, although mine really extends to, like, Michigan.

That's kind of it.

Yes, sir.

It's a lot of inside Michigan jokes, improv, comedy, a little bit of sketch comedy.

But yeah.

So let's just get started.

What inspired your love for acting?

Okay, this is my favorite story to tell.

I was a first grader, and we had our winter pageant and all the other first graders were reindeer and two third grade Girls and me were cast as snowflakes.

I think we did, like, let it, you know, like a little Let it snow.

Like let it snow.

Let it snow.

Yeah, a little trio.

A trio?

Is that what they call that?

A trio?

Yeah, I guess.

A trio of snowflakes.

And so, yeah, I remember very distinctly.

Triple duet.

Is that a word?

That's right.

I remember thinking, like, not only was it, like, special, right?

Like, I got a special costume that none of my other classmates got, but, like, I also got to hang out with, like, these two cute older girls.

And I was like, oh, man, this is what's up.

So that was the moment that I fell in love with being on stage, with performing in front of people.

I was still pretty terrified of it for a long time.

It wasn't, I think, until I started really doing narrative stuff.

Like, in middle school, we did all the musicals.

Everybody does Oklahoma.

Oh, probably not anymore.

There's new ones.

People do Oklahoma.

Or your high school did Oklahoma.

Music.

Middle school.

Your middle school did Oklahoma.

Yeah.

My guy.

What kind of actors did you guys have in middle school?

Well, I mean, you're looking at one of them.

I mean, fair.

Gold fair.

But like, Oklahoma is like one of the most dance intensive shows there is.

Oh.

I mean, any musical can be non dance intensive.

You just don't choreograph it.

And you cut the dance ballet.

Like.

But Oklahoma, like, uses dance to tell some of the stories.

So how do you just not do that?

You cut the dream ballet.

What?

That.

It's not even Oklahoma at that point.

That's right.

It's a middle school production of Oklahoma.

It's not Oklahoma.

It's.

It's.

I was Judd Fry.

I was the.

Like, why are we even using.

Why are we even saying it's a production of Oklahoma?

It's like you took Oklahoma.

Took out the best part, and I.

Don'T know, we kept in the, like, assault.

That's still.

I mean, that's.

I mean.

All right, but like.

But like the dream sequence.

That's not the best part.

The dream sequence is solid.

To be very clear, it is not the best part.

But yeah, the dream sequences.

I mean, pertinent to the story.

But I don't want to say it's the best.

No.

Because that's traumatizing.

Yeah.

Also traumatizing to be like an eighth grader.

Yeah.

Playing that part for real.

Like, what do you mean?

I went from.

That's about as bad as.

I had a.

There's a guy in one of my theater classes who.

You guys have Already heard from in our Puffs series.

Their name is Josh.

Oh, yeah.

And their high school did a production of Chicago and did not tone it down.

And I'm like that, yes, a little.

Murder, murderers in prison.

But like, not even just that part.

Like the.

It's a family podcast.

Please.

Yeah, that's a little weird.

In my book, I went from seventh.

Grade for high schoolers to be doing that show.

I went from playing Winthrop in seventh grade, the little boy in Music man, to.

Which was completely age appropriate, to.

Yeah.

Jed Fry in 8th grade just a year later, the grizzled old bruh.

Yeah.

So what was your high school doing?

If your middle school's doing Oklahoma, what was your high school doing?

Well, no.

Yeah, we did some racy stuff.

We once did a play called Dark of the Moon.

What is that?

There's a story about a witch boy and a conjure woman and this young girl from the town.

It's like a town in Appalachian Hills, and she falls in love with the witch boy.

But then there's more assault in it.

That's pretty terrible.

Like, the whole town gets in on it because it's really messed up.

I mean, I guess.

I guess, like, I mean, we had parents.

Oklahoma in middle school is kind of an intense show for middle schoolers.

Dark of the Moon was way more intense.

We had like, yeah.

Christian folks in the.

In the community protest.

I mean, I guess.

I don't know.

My high school did the Phantom.

Oh, okay.

Did Phantom of the Opera.

Man, that's a lot.

How'd you pull that off?

Oh, you probably just cut cool stuff.

No, like, we did.

We did not cut anything.

So you have like.

What's the big thing?

Like the.

The chandelier?

Yeah, yeah, we rented the chandelier and swung it over the audience.

You did?

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

That's a lot of brownies being sold at the bake sale.

Well, I went to Grand Ledge.

Is that.

I don't know this area enough.

Is grand lynch the rich people, the Ledges?

No, sorta.

Not really.

It's just that we had very generous boosters that had like most of these school.

Local schools are using their theater shows to help raise money.

For their athletic stuff.

No, for their, like choir and band programs.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

But we had very generous boosters that had artwork already over supplied what we needed for our choir programs.

So we were kind of just like, let's go for broke.

Like if we break even.

Oh, well.

And actually on the Phantom, we lost fifteen hundred dollars.

Sure.

That's Those chandeliers are expensive.

Yeah, we rented, like, the whole chandelier.

When we did Beauty and the Beast, we rented an entire rotating castle set.

Oh, my gosh.

Did you ever do Peter Pan?

You could fly people.

No, That's a thing.

I once directed him, however, for Beauty and the Bee.

You're talking about flying people?

Oh, yeah.

Beauty and the Beast.

The Beast's transformation back to the Prince.

We flew him up into the grid, and he came back down as the prince.

So unnecessary.

What a flex.

You could pay actors.

That's money.

Yeah, but you can't pay high schoolers.

No.

Yeah.

Nor should you.

Let's be honest.

I didn't deserve to get paid for my high school actors.

Nor should you.

Nor should you, he says.

Yeah, we did the Phantom.

We did the Beauty and the Beast.

What else?

Oh, we did Les Mis.

Oh, okay.

I got to play Thenatie.

Who's that?

That's the.

Like, what is he saying?

Master of the house.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's the master of the house.

He's.

He's the innkeeper dude.

Yeah, yeah.

He's the dude that treats Gazette like a slave.

Yeah, he's real bawdy and raunchy, and.

He'S a.

I can't say the word that he is on here.

Sure.

That's a very.

That's a very fun part to play, though.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we did that.

We did.

We did west side Story.

We did.

Who were you on west side sir?

I was Action Action Jackson.

I was Action Action Gray.

He's one of the.

He's one of the.

He's one of the Jets.

Sure.

He doesn't have a lot of speaking lines, but he conveys a lot of emotion from his face.

Was Action the name you chose for your character?

No, no, no, no.

That's actually the name of one of the Jets.

Oh, all right.

And then we also did White Christmas.

Oh, wow.

I was General Waverly.

Okay.

It feels like, too sec.

Like, not secular enough for a high school, but maybe White Christmas.

Yeah, Christmas is in the title, so I'm very secular.

See what I mean?

Yeah.

That's why, like, my Christmas pageant wasn't a Christmas.

Like, we had reindeer and snowflakes, and I'm pretty sure Santa showed up at some point, but it was a winter pageant.

Gotcha.

What's your favorite show you've ever done?

Oh, no, you just jump in with the worst question ever.

It's so hard.

The best movie experience was Dial a Prayer, of course.

But I think my favorite show that I'VE done I've got to do it a couple times at both the Williamson Theater and Williamson, Michigan and at Farmer's Alley in Kalamazoo, Michigan, two small professional theaters.

And they recently had a stint back on Broadway again.

But a one man show entitled Fully Committed.

Interesting.

So you play and it's sort of irrelevant now because things don't work like this, but the lead character is a young struggling actor in New York who is working in the basement of a fancy restaurant and he's taking reservations, which everything's done online now.

So you don't do that.

So in the play you're in the basement and there's the bank of calls from customers calling in.

You also have a chef's phone in the space, Mater D's phone or the upstairs phone.

That's like three different characters could be at the upstairs podium, including the mater die.

And then you play as the actor, all the characters.

So you play both sides of the conversation.

One person shows intrigue me sometimes.

Peppermint Creek is working on a one woman show.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What's the show?

I don't know what it's called.

Oh, thanks.

Good story.

Yeah.

So Obviously you did 37 different characters, so.

No, in that one.

Yeah.

I would hate myself.

All talking to each other.

I would, I would hate myself.

It was great.

I would, I would.

The hard part is I would be.

Crying myself to sleep every single night.

Yeah.

Okay, so.

So here's a question then.

Yeah.

When you're in a one man show, what do rehearsals look like?

Because you're the only cast member with a director.

Is there even a stage manager?

Of course.

Okay.

All right.

Yeah.

I mean this, it really is a two person show.

They just hire a stage manager to like.

I mean, for one person in a cast, the.

Well, in fact, the first time I did it, we had a.

Well, first I should say most small professional theaters are run real bare bones because you know your money is going towards like upkeep and stuff for the building and production costs, of course.

But like paying professionals costs money.

And union houses have to pay union rates.

And even though it's not even really technically a living wage, it's still a lot of money for a small theater.

So that's why a lot of times they'll do like small whatever.

What do those rates look like?

Around three to five hundred bucks a week, depending on the size of the house.

I have a friend that just got offered a role in Merrily We Go along and he declined it because they only were going to give him 75 bucks a week for the role he was doing.

Was he non union?

Yeah, he's not a union.

But it was also like.

It was also a very minor role in the show.

And he would have had to drive to Midland for rehearsals.

Like 75 books a week.

Wouldn't even have covered his gas.

Yeah.

So one of the ways you can join the stage Actors union is by accruing points from working in professional houses.

And after 50 points, you can.

Or 40, I don't know anymore.

You can join.

So my first few.

Or you just pay a bunch of money to join?

Well, you have to pay a bunch of money no matter what.

But unless you have the points or unless someone offers you a role that's an equity role, you can't join.

And so I joined by getting enough points.

And so my first shows in Ann Arbor at the now gone Performance Network Theater in Ann Arbor, I missed that space.

I was getting paid 50 bucks a weekend.

Wow.

Yeah.

Because, well, one, I could take the bus.

So it was easy.

That's not so bad, though.

Yeah.

But also I was like, I need points.

I want to be a professional.

You mentioned in Oklahoma, in middle school.

So you've done musicals before then?

I have.

Professionally.

I was in a production of man of La Mancha.

Okay.

I played Sancho.

I love him.

I think that's the song.

And then I think that's it.

So when I was in high school and I knew I wanted to do this for a living, and I.

My parents were like, we really want you to go to U of M because it would be great.

And they're insane, I guess, not thinking about how much money it would cost them.

Hey, if they're paying for it.

Yeah.

There was a lot of.

What do they call those things?

Scholarships.

Too small scholarships.

So I looked at the audition process for the musical theater program, and there was a lot of dance involved and there was a lot of, like, sight reading and stuff too, which I didn't feel very comfortable with.

And so that's.

I learned early on, like, I was.

Street theater is more my avenue.

And film theater and film.

Musical theater.

Not really.

I mean, not that I don't love doing it and not that I won't do it sort of locally or whatever, but, like, no one should ever pay to see me do a musical.

I'm so.

Did you do any musicals in high school?

Yeah.

What'd you do?

Pirates of Penzance.

What is that?

Oh, you don't know the Pirates of Penzance?

No.

I am the very modern lover Modern.

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

Okay, okay.

I played.

You said you sing that now.

And I know what.

I mean.

I know what you're talking about.

I played the constable or like the police.

Police chief.

And it was like a baritone bass.

And that was not my.

I don't know how I ended up getting cast in a role where I couldn't physically sing the part.

It was too low.

But I did.

So that also added to me hating musicals.

Actually, the only reason I ever heard about that musical in that song specifically was because of a show that was on the CW called Heart of Dixie.

Big fan of Heart of Dixie, are you?

Oh, yes, I'm a huge fan of Hart of Dixie.

So in the show, their local community theater guy was putting on a review of a bunch of.

Just with a bunch of different songs from a bunch of different musicals.

Little cabaret night.

One of the town doctors had to sing that song on stage and he was having such a hard time memorizing it because there's so many words in that song.

A lot of words in a very.

Short period of time.

So it was a whole thing.

Very minor part of the show.

Theater is not even what that show's about.

It's about a chick named Zoe Hart that wanted to be a cardiothoracic surgeon and then failed in New York.

So she came down to bluebell, Alabama and to work in a small town practice.

And it turns out that the dude that left her the practice was her real father.

But she didn't know that she needed to have a real father because she thought that her father that was raised her was her real father.

Oh, double twist.

And so it was a whole thing.

And apparently her mom had an affair on a cruise or something.

Oh, man.

And anyway, so then just like four seasons of her life in this town of bluebell, Alabama, which she initially thinks is just going to be temporary until.

Because her.

Her chief of surgery in New York told her if she wanted the cardiothoracic fellowship, she needed to spend a year as a gp.

For those of you tuning in, welcome back to the Heart of Dixie podcast.

Anyway, sorry, no tangents.

So you mentioned your University of Michigan.

You got your degree in theater from Michigan?

No, I.

Let's.

Let's put in a break.

Sound effect there.

Okay.

I studied theater performance at U of M.

Oh, okay.

I did not get a degree.

I also had undiagnosed ADHD at the time.

Don't we all?

Yeah, I think I'm convinced.

We.

Thank you.

I was about two and a half, three years ago.

I was diagnosed.

I'm well in my 40s at this point, so my first time in college was not great.

My theater classes were really great and I did have.

I was often the first student off book.

You get a 10 page Shakespeare script, a scene and all right.

In two days it was a Monday class, come back Wednesday off book.

And I would be the only one who really was off book.

And it was.

Cause I wasn't doing homework in any of my other classes.

So yeah, they were like, why are your grades so bad?

You're such an incredible student.

I'm like, oh, yeah.

And here I don't like algebra.

So actually I didn't even have to take a math class.

I think I got a 3.5 in college algebra.

Hey, all right.

I'm working.

I'm actually in college algebra currently.

Do you know who Andy Kalis is?

Of course I do.

Okay.

Did you know that Andy Kalis first college degree was not a theater degree?

I did.

I don't remember what it was.

Was it business?

No, no.

He got a bachelor's in math.

That's right.

From Eastern Michigan University.

Oh, I didn't know it was from emu.

That's fun.

Like think about that.

An actual theater person knowing math.

That's not a.

That's not a.

Well, we're two theater people.

That's not a common thing.

I think we're starting a new track.

Didn't you say you didn't like algebra?

I don't, but I'm doing okay this time around.

That's because I had adhd.

Whatever.

Yeah, that was the undiagnosed adhd.

So you took classes at U of M?

I did.

I have the training of a student from U of M, but I never got my degree.

Okay, so how do you think that time at U of M shaped your path in theater?

Immensely, I think in like three sort of major ways.

Like, one, it solidified my love of performing.

Two, it was like this, like, really wonderful foundation of like, skills.

I think that a lot of people don't realize that acting and singing and playing guitar, like playing instruments.

A lot of painting, sculpting, art forms involve skills that must be learned and what?

And like, there's talent and whatever, but like, yeah, there's skills.

And a lot of people, especially with acting, people sort of assume if I just learn my lines and show up to set, I'll be fine.

And there's skills involved.

Just like building a birdhouse.

Oh, yeah.

I don't know why acting uses birdhouse analogy a lot.

I have never in all of my theater classes so far, I have never heard Andy, Paige or Blake use that.

The birdhouse analogy.

The birdhouse analogy once.

Maybe that was just my.

My generation.

It was always like, you got.

You got to know how to build a birdhouse.

I mean, but Andy's been teaching here for 30 years.

So he would be your generation, theoretically.

Well, yeah.

He's a math guy, though, so we can't trust math guys.

Yeah, no, and to be clear, I trust Andy.

I trust Andy.

I trust Andy with my life.

He is the most amazing dude ever.

For real.

Do the listeners know who he is?

He's the head of the theater department here.

He's not the head.

Oh, the foot.

He's just the heart of the.

He's a faculty member.

He's a professor who's the dean of the theater.

Well, there's not really a dean.

Well, there is a dean, but the dean is a dean of more than just theater.

However, the main producer, slash.

Oh, I guess that would be faculty.

I guess would be the best.

Yeah.

Like the quote unquote head of the theater department, which is Paige Duncan.

Yeah, it would be Paige.

Yeah, yeah.

Who is also another wonderful person.

Paige is amazing.

I actually have two classes with Paige this semester.

One of them is acting one, which is very interesting class where you're like, first half of the semester you're learning about contemporary acting and the second half of the semester you're like putting on a show at the college.

Oh, cool.

So, yeah, that's a fun one.

And then she is co teaching acting for the camera with Barry.

Oh, that's right.

Finally we're doing it together.

I love it.

Although I don't know.

No, that's not totally true.

They should be using DMacc students too.

Barry is very accomplished in this industry.

Yeah.

Would you remember Barry's last name?

Nope.

Oh, no.

We're terrible people.

I just call him Barry.

So he's a adept, skilled and very experienced cinematographer from Los Angeles.

Very, very experienced.

He doesn't like to throw his credits around.

So I'm not.

I won't name drop or anything, which is really funny and very sort of like on Brand with a lot of cinematographers.

Whereas, like, actors are desperate to throw our br.

I worked on this set with Robert Downey Jr.

I'm so cool.

Yeah.

Like, I'm telling like Bagger Kroger about.

My time with M.H.

Macy.

He's like, anytime we ask him questions about people that he's worked with, he gets uncomfortable.

It's really cute.

Anyway, he's probably signed a bunch of NDAs and he can't talk about it anyway.

No, because he talks about it.

He's just uncomfortable about it.

So the third.

But anyways, so can I finish my.

Sorry, you were.

Yeah, sorry.

Sorry.

You're okay.

We love to talk.

Yes.

This is why podcasts are good for us.

So the third reason, I think, why U of M really solidified.

I was introduced to theater of the oppressed, but also like the work of Bertolt Brecht and activism theater and how theater is used as a tool in society, not just as a way to entertain people.

That's been a huge part of my life, too.

That's cool.

Well, we have much more to talk about and we're running a little bit out of time.

Yeah, sorry.

Somebody loves to talk about time.

Come back.

Well, you know what?

Listen, so I, I think we're going to turn this into a two parter.

Okay.

And you guys can come back for part two.

Thanks for tuning in to Front Row backstage.

We hope you enjoyed this week behind the curtains of the media world.

Don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram for more information.

And join us next week for more stories from the front lines of entertainment.

Until then, stay tuned because whether it's on stage, behind the scenes, or over the airwaves, the real action is everywhere.