Part two of our chat with Aral Gribble delves further into his dual career as both an accomplished actor and an educator in the performing arts. We explore the motivations that led him to embrace teaching alongside his performance career, revealing the profound impact it has had on his journey. Gribble shares anecdotes from his early teaching experiences, highlighting the challenges and triumphs encountered in guiding aspiring young actors. Furthermore, we examine the unique attributes of Michigan's theater scene, characterized by a community of artists driven by passion and creativity.
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.
Greg Trimmer:
Welcome, guys. So, as I promised, we're back for a part two with Errol Gribble.
Aral Gribble:
Hey, everybody.
Greg Trimmer:
So real quick, before we dive back into some things, where does that last name come from? Because it is a very interesting Gribble.
Aral Gribble:
Yeah, well, if you look it up, a Gribble is actually a form of lichen that feeds off the bottom of boats like a barnacle.
Greg Trimmer:
Okay.
Aral Gribble:
But the name I think is English.
Greg Trimmer:
Gotcha. So let's talk about your teaching. What motivated you to begin teaching acting alongside your performance career?
Aral Gribble:
I'm gonna be honest with you. I needed money. I mean, fair and it's true. Most. And I would also encourage any young actor sort of out there gigging, trying to get work.
It's a really wonderful side gig. I started in Ann Arbor, Reckonhead, doing after school drama classes for elementary school kids. Yeah, I kind of hated it.
Greg Trimmer:
You kind of hated it?
Aral Gribble:
That's not true. I really loved it. But I.
Greg Trimmer:
That's fair. If you hated it, you hated it.
Aral Gribble:
No, I didn't. No. I learned my first. I will never forget. I think it was my second semester teaching.
I had like two classes, like first semester and then three classes the second semester. So it's like one day a week. And one of the classes was 11 third grade girls. And I did not know as a young 22 year old young man how to handle.
Greg Trimmer:
Yeah, that's fair.
Aral Gribble:
Third grade girls.
Greg Trimmer:
That's fair.
Aral Gribble:
And they walked all over me the last day of class. It was like a showcase. So we're showing off the scenes we've been working on and they won't focus. They're running around and I.
I screamed, you know, everybody shut the hell up. And had like the latchkey lady from next door come over and ask if everything was okay.
Like, I'm surprised I'm still teaching to this day after Latchkey.
Greg Trimmer:
You guys might not know what that is. Some of our listeners are kind of young, so, like, they might not know what latchkey.
Aral Gribble:
They don't have latchkey anymore.
Greg Trimmer:
I don't think latchkey is a thing anymore, my guy. I mean, they probably have it. It's probably just not called that.
Aral Gribble:
After school care.
Greg Trimmer:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Aral Gribble:
I guess it's for. Why do they call it latchkey?
Greg Trimmer:
I don't even know why that was a thing.
Aral Gribble:
It was. I Like, we're the latch to put your key in.
Greg Trimmer:
I don't.
Aral Gribble:
Bro.
Greg Trimmer:
I don't know.
Aral Gribble:
But it's for kids whose, like, parents worked late.
Greg Trimmer:
Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure, for sure. I know what it is.
Aral Gribble:
It's another way that capitalism replaces parenting with, you know, the system. Fair.
Greg Trimmer:
So you did young people's theater.
Aral Gribble:
Yes.
Greg Trimmer:
And then you taught at the Wharton Center.
Aral Gribble:
Yep. Young people's theater was in Ann Arbor.
I worked with a handful of, like, after school, summer theater camp kind of groups, and that's what young people's theater was. And Young Actors Guild was another one. Yag Yag Yag. And they were. Yeah, it's like all ages, from kindergarten to high school, often doing musicals.
That's where I did Peter Pan. We did Peter Pan Is fun.
Greg Trimmer:
Western Michigan University, one of their theaters they have in their theater complex is this. I don't know. Imagine, like, it looks like a black box, but it's big.
Aral Gribble:
Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah.
Greg Trimmer:
But then, like, there's. The seating is arena style. Yeah, okay. But then they have this whole rigging system up above that allows them to fly people over the audience.
Aral Gribble:
What?
Greg Trimmer:
Yeah.
Aral Gribble:
Wow.
Greg Trimmer:
They told me about this on my college tour for the Western Theater.
Aral Gribble:
Yeah.
Greg Trimmer:
So they did Peter Pan in there at one point and flew people over. Flew Peter Pan over the audience. Kids that were following him to never.
Aral Gribble:
That's super cool.
Greg Trimmer:
Yeah.
Aral Gribble:
Are you transferring? Do you know where you're transferring?
Greg Trimmer:
As a side note, if I get into Western, that's my number one choice.
Aral Gribble:
Really great theater program.
Greg Trimmer:
I am applying to Western Michigan Tech, Michigan State, Northern Michigan, and Wayne State.
Aral Gribble:
Oh, I don't know about a couple of those, but most of those are really, really wonderful theater programs.
Greg Trimmer:
So this is what's insane about Wayne State.
Aral Gribble:
They're the best.
Greg Trimmer:
They're like bottom of my. They're like the bottom of my list.
Aral Gribble:
Oh, they shouldn't be.
Greg Trimmer:
But only because the campus environment. Not that the environment emotionally or anything is bad.
I just don't know that I want to navigate the concrete jungle of downtown Detroit every day for class. You.
Aral Gribble:
I think you would very quickly fall in love with Detroit.
Greg Trimmer:
Yeah. They don't have their own proscenium. They have a contract for their main, like, big proscenium shows, like their main stage shows.
And you know where they do them? The Fox Theater.
Aral Gribble:
Oh, yeah, that's right. They had a space at the. I can't remember the name of it. Hillbury.
Greg Trimmer:
Well, I don't care. It's at the Fox Theater.
Aral Gribble:
Yeah. Now they use the Fox, which is insane.
Greg Trimmer:
It's great to be in college working on shows in the Fox Theater.
Aral Gribble:
The Wharton center is essentially mid Michigan city.
Greg Trimmer:
No, no, no, no, no, no. Wharton center is great and does a lot of amazing large scale professional shows. But do you understand the significance of the Fox Theater?
Aral Gribble:
No.
Greg Trimmer:
So back in the day when American Idol was like the.
Aral Gribble:
This is not at all why I thought. I was like, I was expecting some historical, you know.
Greg Trimmer:
No, like, like it's one of the.
Aral Gribble:
First theaters where film was shown.
Greg Trimmer:
And I mean, yeah, the Fox Theater's a zillion years, like, history, all that.
Aral Gribble:
Blah, blah, blah, blah, big vaudeville house.
Greg Trimmer:
But like the first seasons of American Idol, when it was the judges were Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul and Simon cowell. Like the OGs. Okay. There used to be a stage of the show. Like they went to Hollywood, right.
And they did like the small theater in Hollywood and then there was like a middle stage between the tiny theater in Hollywood and like the big production. Like once you got to like the top 20 or whatever. Like before the big stage. Yeah, there was a middle level stage.
Aral Gribble:
Okay.
Greg Trimmer:
And that was the Fox Theater in Detroit.
Aral Gribble:
Oh, wow.
Greg Trimmer:
Yeah.
Aral Gribble:
So the, like, what's now we'll see.
Greg Trimmer:
Blink182 has played the Fox Theater.
Aral Gribble:
Oh, sure.
Greg Trimmer:
Like Excision comes there.
Aral Gribble:
Who?
Greg Trimmer:
Excision?
Aral Gribble:
Is that the opposite of incision?
Greg Trimmer:
No, Excision is one of the, like, largest EDM artists.
Aral Gribble:
Like, well, yeah. Have you ever been to the Detroit EDM Fest?
Greg Trimmer:
The Movement? Yeah, I have been to Movement. Movement is insane.
Aral Gribble:
I went before they were calling it Movement.
Greg Trimmer:
So here's the thing. So Movement, you have the main thing during the day, right?
Like the actual festival, but there's all these EDM rave houses and theaters and like clubs and stuff in Detroit that do after parties.
Aral Gribble:
Yeah, I bet St. Andrews hall has Wild.
Greg Trimmer:
And those after parties go till like 4am?
Aral Gribble:
Sure.
Greg Trimmer:
Okay. And then at like 5:30 in the morning, there's these even smaller companies doing these rooftop breakfast raves.
Aral Gribble:
Oh.
Greg Trimmer:
And then by time those are over, movement is starting back up again.
Aral Gribble:
So are you telling me that's what you did? You were like, all night long. Let's go to the after party.
Greg Trimmer:
Yes.
Aral Gribble:
Let's go to the breakfast party.
Greg Trimmer:
Yes.
Aral Gribble:
All right. I mean, if you're on, you know, enough of the recreational activities, that's possible. That's another reason why I didn't graduate from U of M.
I went to a lot of raves in the 90s. What are you gonna do?
Greg Trimmer:
What are you gonna do?
Aral Gribble:
It's a good time.
Greg Trimmer:
So what was it like performing with theaters like Purple Rose Theater and the Meadowbrook Theater?
Aral Gribble:
Those. It's really funny. Those are two very different houses.
Well, first of all, I will say it is amazing and incredible to work in a professional house where you are supported by a team of professionals. Different places do different stuff.
But the purple robe especially is, like, really take care of actors like Jeff Daniels, the founder, of course, very.
Greg Trimmer:
Jeff Daniels founded the Purple Rose.
Aral Gribble:
You didn't know that?
Greg Trimmer:
No.
Aral Gribble:
Oh, yeah. That was Jeff Daniels Theater, based off of the movie Purple Rose of Cairo that he was in.
Greg Trimmer:
Isn't he the one that's like. Isn't he the one that's like Jalapeno on a stick? No.
Aral Gribble:
What?
Greg Trimmer:
Who is that? Who am I thinking of?
Aral Gribble:
I don't know, man.
Greg Trimmer:
There's a dude. There's a dude named Jeff. There's like, a famous comedian named Jeff.
Aral Gribble:
Oh, Jeff Dunham.
Greg Trimmer:
Oh, okay. Okay. I was. I was thinking that it was. Okay, never mind.
Aral Gribble:
Never mind. You know what? I do kind of love that you mix up Jeff Dunham and Jeff Daniels. That's kind of amazing.
Greg Trimmer:
Jalapeno on a stick.
Aral Gribble:
Yeah. Because that's. Unfortunately, that is often, you know, because he's like a famous Hollywood celebrity. You get a lot of folks.
You get a lot of gross stuff that kind of happens around.
Greg Trimmer:
Who's your. Who's your favorite famous actor?
Aral Gribble:
William H. Macy, of course. Well, I mean, I would say.
Greg Trimmer:
Worked on a set with him.
Aral Gribble:
Yeah, he would, like. He would be in my top five, top ten, no matter what. But, like, yeah, the fact that I got to work with him means.
Greg Trimmer:
Can you. Can you guess? Can you guess who mine is? I'll tell you. It's a man. I'll give you that hint.
Aral Gribble:
I have no idea.
Greg Trimmer:
Okay.
Aral Gribble:
Is he alive?
Greg Trimmer:
Yes. I'll give you one more hint.
Aral Gribble:
Is he American 1?
Greg Trimmer:
No.
Aral Gribble:
Benedict Cumberbatch 2.
Greg Trimmer:
He started on Broadway.
Aral Gribble:
Wolverine.
Greg Trimmer:
Hugh Jackman.
Aral Gribble:
Yeah. Any thoughts about the. Like, the gossip about Wolverine?
Greg Trimmer:
What do you mean?
Aral Gribble:
Well, so Hugh Jackman has his wife that he's been with for a long time.
Greg Trimmer:
Yeah.
Aral Gribble:
But a lot of people, the gossip on the. You know, the rumors in the gossip pages are that she's a beard, if you know what. That.
Greg Trimmer:
If you know what I mean, she is not gay.
Aral Gribble:
That's what the rumors.
Greg Trimmer:
No Shot.
Aral Gribble:
Or that, like, the two of them have an open relationship.
Greg Trimmer:
I realized that the stereotype. That the, like, awful stereotype is that every man on Broadway is gay.
Aral Gribble:
No. My father was terrified when I was like, I want to go into theater. Oh, my God, let's go hunting.
Greg Trimmer:
But no. No shot. No way.
Aral Gribble:
I don't. I don't know, man. There's no judgment either way. I'm just.
Greg Trimmer:
Blake Lively is not a beard.
Aral Gribble:
Blake Lively is not his girl. His wife.
Greg Trimmer:
Oh, no, that's. That's. Well, what's his face. His wife. Ryan Reynolds.
Aral Gribble:
Yeah. Look up.
Greg Trimmer:
Sorry, sorry, I got mixed up. That's my bad.
Aral Gribble:
Cause that's the thing. They've been married forever.
And that's part of it, too, is I think people are like, he could be with some hot celebrity, whatever, and he's with this woman. And, like. But I think it's.
Greg Trimmer:
I feel like that adds to the fact that she's not a beard.
Aral Gribble:
Oh, sure. Look, I don't know, man. You gotta talk to the gossip columns. Don't talk to me. I'm just.
Greg Trimmer:
I don't.
Aral Gribble:
As your favorite.
Greg Trimmer:
Although, you know what? You know what warms my heart about Hugh Jackman?
Aral Gribble:
What warms your cockles?
Greg Trimmer:
Is that. Let's not use that word.
Aral Gribble:
But that's my favorite thing about Christmas. And I used it at the Greenfield Village during my Christmas speech as Calvin Wood, owner of the Eagle Tavern.
I said, it warms my cockles to have all of you here.
Greg Trimmer:
I don't like that word. But, yeah, no, Hugh Jackman, he's made zillions of dollars in movies.
Aral Gribble:
Yeah.
Greg Trimmer:
But he started on Broadway, and that's his true love. That's his true love when it comes to acting, singing, and being on Broadway.
Aral Gribble:
Yeah.
Greg Trimmer:
So now that he's retired from movies, this man retired and was like, I'm still going to work, though. I'm just going to go back to Broadway.
Aral Gribble:
Yeah.
Greg Trimmer:
I've made my money. Now I'm going to go do what I want to do.
Aral Gribble:
Which is insane, because first, he's probably still making quite a hefty paycheck.
Greg Trimmer:
Well, so.
Aral Gribble:
So right now, it's really hard work.
Greg Trimmer:
Right now for the beginning of his Broadway stuff. He's got just a review he's doing of stuff that he's done, like songs from stuff that he's done. And that's like a, like, limited run.
Aral Gribble:
Yeah, sure thing.
Greg Trimmer:
That's happening in New York. But the first actual show that he's working on is Disney is bringing the Greatest showman to The Broadway stage.
Aral Gribble:
Yeah, that's right.
Greg Trimmer:
And he's reprising his role as P.T. barnum.
Aral Gribble:
Amazing.
Greg Trimmer:
And the stage version.
Aral Gribble:
I can't wait.
Greg Trimmer:
Have you seen that? Cabaret is back on Broadway.
Aral Gribble:
Oh, yeah.
Greg Trimmer:
Did you see?
Aral Gribble:
I didn't see. Who's the most recent.
Greg Trimmer:
So the first one was Eddie Redmayne.
Aral Gribble:
Yeah. Amazing. I saw like a video and then.
Greg Trimmer:
Right now it is Adam Lambert.
Aral Gribble:
Oh, wow.
Greg Trimmer:
Yeah, perfect.
Aral Gribble:
Amazing.
Greg Trimmer:
But they're recasting it again. Orville Peck.
Aral Gribble:
Orville Peck. Who's Orville Peck?
Greg Trimmer:
He's a like famous country singer.
Aral Gribble:
Oh, very cool.
Greg Trimmer:
Yeah, it's kind of wild. If you could be in any show on Broadway.
Aral Gribble:
Little Shop of Horrors.
Greg Trimmer:
Oh man, I wish we would do Little Shop of Horrors here at lcc.
Aral Gribble:
Extreme part. Yeah.
Greg Trimmer:
I really want to be the frickin plant.
Aral Gribble:
Let's do it. I'll be Seymour, you'll be the plant.
Greg Trimmer:
Feed me.
Aral Gribble:
Freed me. That's funny. The Fortnite contest has been these last couple weeks for the listeners, the cast members.
Greg Trimmer:
There's some people in my Acting for the camera class that are in one of the movies.
Aral Gribble:
I think it's because I came and talked to your class and asked them.
Greg Trimmer:
Something about a couple that shows up to a party and it turns out to be a swinger party. And they didn't know it.
Aral Gribble:
That was the group I couldn't. I was like, I don't have time to help y' all out. But that was the part. That was the group I was a part of last year.
Greg Trimmer:
Beth and Dylan and Jonathan Riley.
Aral Gribble:
Okay.
Greg Trimmer:
Yeah, we're all in it.
Aral Gribble:
Bethlehem is her full name.
Greg Trimmer:
Yeah, I don't call her that. That's weird.
Aral Gribble:
She doesn't call herself that.
Greg Trimmer:
That's fair.
Aral Gribble:
But yeah, a Little Shop of Horrors.
Greg Trimmer:
Would be so fun.
Aral Gribble:
So I helped out a smaller group this year and they had me do a voiceover and one of it was like, can you give me like some feedback?
Greg Trimmer:
Was that the one that Shane was in?
Aral Gribble:
I don't know. I was working on.
Greg Trimmer:
Yeah, Shane was in another. Shane was in another one. That's compete. That was competing with the one that Beth, John and Dylan were in.
Aral Gribble:
No, for the listeners, the Capital City Film Festival does a contest. Instead of 48 hours, you have two full weeks to shoot and edit a film and then it gets judged.
Greg Trimmer:
What makes the Michigan theater scene unique and special to you?
Aral Gribble:
It is filled with artists who are doing it because they love it.
Greg Trimmer:
That's fair.
Aral Gribble:
Partially because they can't afford.
Greg Trimmer:
It's wild to me how many like, in the Lansing area alone, how many community theater organizations there is? Yeah, like Riverwalk and Exion and Peppermint.
Aral Gribble:
Creek and like, Meanwhile, though, if you think about, like, alive, the professional theaters that used to be in Michigan. Right. The Borchead Theater was an Equity house. That's the Actors Union. They're closed. The Performance Network in Ann Arbor is closed.
The Jewish Ensemble Theater in West Bloomfield closed down.
Greg Trimmer:
Chicago just opened an Irish professional theater.
Aral Gribble:
Well, Chicago is a pretty great theater town. I feel like Detroit should also be a great theater town. And it's slowly becoming. So. The Detroit Public Theater is a new ish theater.
Greg Trimmer:
Detroit Repertory has been around forever.
Aral Gribble:
Forever. One of the oldest equity theaters in the country, actually. Yeah, they started as a theater for children, like doing shows for children.
Children's theater, and then became professional. And then I think the riots happened.
Greg Trimmer:
Children's. Children's theater is wild. Children's theater is always wild to me because it's like some of the shows are at like 10 o' clock in the morning.
Aral Gribble:
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Greg Trimmer:
And it's like, bruh.
Aral Gribble:
That's how I got my actor.
Greg Trimmer:
As an actor, I'm like, I don't know if I can get up at 10 o' clock in the flipping morning and be able to have that much energy on stage for a kids show.
Aral Gribble:
It's way harder. Not that that isn't hard, especially if you're still drinking like I was at the time. It was rough mornings.
But it's so much harder to do that for a film when your call could. Like, you're trying to get sunshine, you know, like the sunrise light. And so your call is like 5 o' clock in the morning for makeup. Yep.
And you don't have an audience. You have a crew of people just as tired as you all standing around.
And if your goal is to try to, like, be funny or be whatever and like theater, that's why Hugh Jackman loves it. One, it's sequential. You're telling a story, so you get to live that story. But also you're feeding off the energy of an audience.
If the audience hasn't gone to a play, go to a play. Even if it's a local community theater show, it is. You're a part of the production.
Greg Trimmer:
And if you can get a chance to go to one of the Wharton shows from around here.
Aral Gribble:
Yeah, absolutely.
Greg Trimmer:
Oh, man. I mean, Chicago is coming in April. Yeah, man. What else?
Aral Gribble:
I don't know. I think the Wharton center podcast, Hamilton is.
Greg Trimmer:
Hamilton is coming back in May.
Aral Gribble:
Oh, that's right. In Case anyone hasn't seen it yet, we have a.
Greg Trimmer:
We have somebody that. We have somebody that directs shows here at lcc from the Wharton though.
Aral Gribble:
Who?
Greg Trimmer:
Kelly Staple Clark.
Aral Gribble:
Oh yeah, yeah. Kelly and I work together through the Disney musical and schools program.
Greg Trimmer:
That's cool. Well, I swear Errol and I'll do a part three, but we're not going to do all that.
Aral Gribble:
Good.
Greg Trimmer:
Just a couple last final questions. One, what can people expect to see you in next?
Aral Gribble:
Good question. Well, you can always listen to the podcast Trolling the Mitten. You'll see me there.
Now, surprisingly, I will be in a short film for the Capital City Film Festival Fortnite contest this year.
Greg Trimmer:
You planning to audition for anything community theater wise or anything here at lcc?
Aral Gribble:
Well, as a member of Actors Equity Association, I can't perform in a theater unless they've given me a contract. An Equity contract. And for non union houses that can be pretty expensive even if I don't get paid, so. Probably not. But there's always my commercials.
Keep an eye out for. I'm trying to think. Oh, I have a. I don't know if the dental commercial is still airing, but I play a biker and a dentist office.
A PSA on rage driving, but it takes place in a grocery store and I am the rage shopper.
Greg Trimmer:
All right, well, thank you for joining and talking for a whole two parts.
Aral Gribble:
Yeah. Well, let me say one more thing before I go, okay.
I spent lots of time as a professional and I went out to la and it was very clear, anybody from wherever you are, whatever you're doing, you gotta either make your own stuff, right? You're either doing standup or you're making your own stuff and putting it out there.
And Michigan is full of incredible, talented, brilliant, hilarious, wonderful people. Which is why I moved home, which is why I'm a DMacc student. And any of you out there listening, I empower you.
Make your own stuff, get out there, find some talented people, produce stuff here in Michigan, show the world how talented we are as.
Greg Trimmer:
As you say that. And I'm planning to leave Michigan after college.
Aral Gribble:
Please. Son of a.
Greg Trimmer:
Hey, you're not supposed to say that on here. Anyway, thank you so much for coming on, Errol. It was a blast, as always. Go follow him on social media and.
Aral Gribble:
All that jazz and Gribbles and bits on Instagram.
Greg Trimmer:
Gribbles and bits. Anyways, thank you guys for joining Front Row Backstage.
Greg:
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. Stay tuned.
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