Interview: Ben Grimes of IMAGINARY INVALID AND THE BREACH at UALR Theatre And Arkansas Repertory Theatre

As a journalist, I don’t want to say that I have favorites when it comes to my artistic community, but well..... Ben Grimes is juggling all sorts of projects, and Broadway World wanted to catch up with him to see what he had for us. Though Grimes is still cultivating Riverside Actors Theatre and is working on the second installment of THE BREACH, he has entered the collegiate world as a guest director and teacher at The University of Arkansas Little Rock and is still working for The Arkansas Repertory Theatre. Luckily, we were able to catch a few minutes of his time at the UALR theatre before their show THE IMAGINARY INVALID. 

BWW: Is this your first time teaching here? 

Ben Grimes: It is. Yeah. It’s my first time teaching at the collegiate level, so I'm honored. 

BWW: What class are you teaching? 

Ben Grimes: Directing. It’s been fun.  

BWW: Are you doing it next semester?  

Ben Grimes: No, I'm actually teaching an intro to theater class next semester.  

BWW: So, are you becoming a regular fixture around here?  

Ben Grimes: As long as they keep asking me back, I'll keep coming back.  

BWW: That's cool. So how has your introduction to the collegiate world been? 

Ben Grimes: It's great. What I really love about this group of students is that they are so passionate, you know, they're so excited and hungry. There is not a jaded one of them, and it's so nice to kind of come back to that, you know.... 

BWW: Remembering why you got into theatre in the first place. 

Ben Grimes: Exactly. 

BWW: And you chose Moliere? 

Ben Grimes: I didn't choose it. Stacy Pendergraft (of the UALR Theatre Department) contacted me this summer and said, ‘hey, let's go get coffee,’ and then asked me if I’d like to direct Moliere and teach a directing class. I said yeah, absolutely, so here we are.  

BWW: The best jobs are when people ask you.  

Ben Grimes: Yeah, it's great, and this script is a phenomenal adaptation of it. It's very modern, very, very funny. It reads like an Arrested Development episode or a Wes Anderson film.  

BWW: Well fun! I can’t wait to see it. Ok, so tell me about the Rep. What do you have going on? 

Ben Grimes: We're doing our second installment of THE BREACH, and we have a cohort of veterans and one family member. We meet every Saturday. It's a little bit smaller of a cohort. I think we have settled in about 6 people, which is great, because it allows for us to give them a lot of time for their stories and more one-on-one kind of coaching and mentoring. Yeah, we're plugging away. One really exciting thing is we actually just got approval with Mid America Arts Alliance to partner with Perpetual Motion Dance Studio (out of Oklahoma City) to interweave their stories into our stories, so there will be a little bit more movement making it more of a celebration of service. And then another really exciting aspect for this year's program is we're doing a Veteran Business Expo. We're actively recruiting veteran owned businesses. We’re looking for a food truck and different service providers. That'll be in the lobby before the show. We are trying to lift up the entire veteran community.  

BWW: That's exciting! So last time you definitely made me cry. What's going to be the difference between last year and this year? 

Ben Grimes: Well, we'll try not to make you cry. I don't know. I think it's going to be different. It's a different group. It has a very different dynamic, and that is what's really great about it. You're going to see a lot of the same common themes -- what it means to serve, the sacrifice, and the struggles and the successes that come along with that. We're still developing the stories, but I think that the stories will be the same kind of format with live storytelling, with pictures and music to support that and telling them in an artistic way. But, they'll be all new stories, all new people, except Brittney. We're excited to have her back. Last year she did the silent piece with the backpack, so who knows what she'll do? Maybe she'll talk the whole time. But yeah, it's going to be very exciting, I think, just to see the evolution of the program. 

BWW: Well, everybody has a different story anyway, so I’m intrigued to hear a whole new set of stories. 

Ben Grimes: Absolutely. This year we're calling it A Celebration of Service. Last year we called it Stories of Service. We really want to lift people up. We don't want to just sit around and cry, but... 

BWW: I get it. It's part of it.  

Ben Grimes: It's part of it. It’s healthy. It’s Cathartic. 

BWW: Great! Ok, How's Arkansas Rep doing? What's the future of The Rep?  

Ben Grimes: The Rep’s doing great. The summer season was a big success...just proof of the concept, you know. When we swapped over and went to the summer stock kind of model, there were a lot of unknowns. How is this going to work?  

BWW: And The Rep fit a lot into the summer. 

Ben Grimes: We fit a ton. We fit a lot into a 5 LB bag, to steal the phrase, but it was a very successful year, so we're gonna do it again. They're looking at the model for next year. There were some lessons learned from last year, they are deciding on the exact number of shows, because it's a lot to put shows on top of each other.  

BWW: It really is. 

Ben Grimes: Oh my gosh. The thing you don’t think about is like it’s not only just having two casts at one time; there is also the administrative load and the artistic load for like the people that are building the sets and the people paying the bills. That’s double the work for everybody. It's a fast and furious model, but it proves successful. So, they are going to continue with that, and I think they're going to announce this next season very soon. It's exciting. So, coming up at the Rep is THE BREACH, and then after that will be the return of MOTOWN CHRISTMAS, which was a big hit last year.  

BWW: I wanna go to that. 

Ben Grimes: It'll be basically the same show, but they're going to have some new things.  

BWW: I didn’t see it last year. 

Ben Grimes: You didn’t see it? Oh my gosh, it's so good. It's so good. They have some sangers... some sangers! It’s a really fun show, and it gets you in the festive mood. 

Well I can’t wait. For more information about what is going on at The Rep, visit their website at https://www.therep.org.  

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