OREM — When James Arrington was 14, he went away to a Boy Scout jamboree.
There, he and another boy created characters and a series of stories that won first place in the end-of-the-week talent show. His mother says he came back a different boy.
Shortly after, he was invited to play a Russian ballet teacher and agreed to if he didn't have to wear any tights. The director talked to him in the accent she wanted and in just a minute he had it down. He did the play and soared in the role.
"That's when I got bit," Arrington said. "Now I know that what I felt was power. I loved the feeling."
It's a good thing, because from that point on Arrington has been on stage — except at home. At home, he says he's just a "very normal, average person" with natural exuberance.
Arrington, who has written several LDS-oriented one-man skits, expected "Brother Brigham" would be the hit in his collection. Instead, his "Farley Family Reunion" has become a staple of Utah theater, something he never intended.
"This was a little sidelight, a toy. It was just such a little funny idea," Arrington said. "I wrote it when I was single, and I'd go to parties and people would say, 'Oh, you're an actor. Be funny!'"
Obligingly, Arrington would create characters and some became hits.
"Eventually I felt I needed a matrix. That's when I read 'The Rummage Sale' by Don Marshall and it hit me. This is my family, why not have a reunion?"
He named the family after "The Farley Family Farm" sign he passed in Provo each day ."It was alliterative. It worked," he said.
The play is an interactive play, a first cousin to murder mystery theater. He likes that it seems to transcend cultures.
"Many people think it's a Mormon play and the Farleys are LDS, but they don't make a big deal of it. One of my greatest moments came when a little lady from Korea came up to me and said, gasping for air, 'You so funny! You just like my great-grandfather!'"
The Farleys have been so popular that Arrington is almost weary of doing it, yet he remains pleased with its success.
"That's where the actor training comes in. If you don't like repetition, don't be in the theater."
Arrington is currently the chairman of Utah Valley State College's theater department, dedicated to seeing that new, original works make it to the stage. He has several new projects in the works and he'll keep doing "Farley" as long as people ask.
"I love breaking the fourth wall, getting the audience to participate," he said.
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