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Alumnus
creates worlds with imagination By Maureen E. Moran ’89
Even in casual conversation, Jay O’Callahan ’60
speaks with the same lilting tones
that he uses when weaving together
the threads of a story for an audience.
As a storyteller, O’Callahan
is a master craftsman who uses the
raw materials of language and words—and
the tools of tone, expression and movement—to
create worlds of substance and depth
where there are none. When telling
a story, he uses little beyond his
voice and his body to conjure people,
places and images in the minds of his
listeners.
Storytelling, O’Callahan says, “is
where I can create best. I’ve
always been drawn to writing, but also
to sound and voice and rhythm and acting.
I discovered storytelling could combine
all of these.”
Whether drawing from his own life,
spinning a new tale or reshaping a
familiar story, O’Callahan practices
an art that is as old as the spoken
word. He challenges individuals who
live in a world that has the immediate
pictures provided by TV and the Internet
to reach within themselves, tap their
imaginations and take a journey into
the mind’s eye where O’Callahan
is the navigator.
Formative years
Now a resident
of Marshfield, Mass., O’Callahan
began learning his craft as a teenager,
spinning stories for his younger brother
and sister. “It was very natural,” he
recalls. “I’d be in the backseat
of the car, and I’d take their
hands and look at the palm. I discovered
any line might look like a red river
or might look like the line of a woman’s
cheek. I didn’t realize it, but
I was working with images, and they
would be the hero and heroine.”
The stories he wove for his siblings
were very personal; when O’Callahan
began telling stories, it was just
for children. The decision to restrict
his audience was a conscious one.
“I think what I wanted was a
listener—a sense of awe and play
and wonder. Many adults are unable
to wonder. Instead, they say, ‘Well,
you know, it would be better if you
had this character’,” he
says.
Even before he was an English major
at Holy Cross, O’Callahan was
exposed to thought-provoking discussions.
His parents’ home in Brookline,
Mass., was a 32-room edifice; famed
landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead
had designed the grounds. O’Callahan
recalls many nights when his parents’ friends
gathered at their home and music, political
debate and literary discussions filled
the air.
It was the 1950s, and these evenings
introduced a teenage O’Callahan
to new thoughts and perspectives. “I
think that was very important: a sense
that life is dramatic and words are
part of life—a very important
part,” he recalls.
A family connection was one reason
O’Callahan came to Holy Cross.
His uncle, Rev. Joseph O’Callahan,
S.J., taught math and physics at the
College. He was also the first chaplain
to receive the Congressional Medal
of Honor after World War II. Fr. O’Callahan
was serving as chaplain on the aircraft
carrier USS Franklin in 1945,
when the Japanese bombed the ship.
“When I knew him, because of
the stroke and the seared lungs, instead
of being this extraordinary athlete,
he was very much a crippled man. But
a wonderful teacher, which I didn’t
realize until I created the story (Father
Joe – A Hero’s Journey),” O’Callahan
recalls.
Once at Holy Cross, O’Callahan
encountered Fr. Joseph Scannell and
Professor Ed Callahan. “Those
two people made a terrific impression
in terms of creating, using language
and being dramatic,” O’Callahan
says. They also planted a seed in O’Callahan’s
mind, that he, too, could use language
and create.
Becoming a storyteller
Despite
O’Callahan’s passion for
language and his love for weaving stories,
his life took a different turn after
Holy Cross. He went to law school for
a year and then spent several years
as a supply officer in the Navy. O’Callahan’s
next stop was to work at a school his
parents had established, the Wyndham
School in Boston. He ultimately left,
not really understanding why, but knowing
it was the right decision to make. “I
assumed that would mean being a novelist
or writing something or other,” he
says.
O’Callahan and his wife moved
to Marshfield, where he worked as a
caretaker at a YWCA. “It was those
six or seven years of telling stories
to my children that made it clear that
I wanted to write, but I wanted to
write for performance,” he says. “At
the end of that time I became a storyteller.”
Once he made the decision to describe
himself as a storyteller first and
a writer second, “things really
blossomed,” O’Callahan recalls.
“I wanted to explore and see
what this art could do,” he says.
Telling stories
O’Callahan’s
journey has taken him across the country
and around the world. In the years
since his decision to make storytelling
his life’s work, O’Callahan
has performed in New York, Dublin and
London. Lehigh University commissioned
him to write a story about the steel
industry in Bethlehem, Pa. He has received
awards from the National Endowment
for the Arts, Parents’ Choice,
and the National Education Film Festival.
For O’Callahan, the creative
process of bringing a story to life
involves being drawn to something;
he often begins with an image that
means much more than itself. In The
Labyrinth of Uncle Mark, for example,
the main character has a room filled
with newspapers about World War II;
the room, however, is also intertwined
with the man’s heart and soul.
“In any story, who is the narrator?
That’s a huge question to be answered,” O’Callahan
says. “In many of my stories,
it’s another character … I
guess the most important part is living
with [the story] and trying to live
with the images and let go of the fear—the
fear that it might not work, the fear
the critics won’t like it, the
fear you can’t finish it.”
In crafting a story, O’Callahan
allows nothing to fall through the
cracks. He refines his voice, develops
his images, chooses his details, selects
a place, decides on a timeframe. “The
structure comes out of the work,” he
says. As O’Callahan has evolved
as a storyteller, he has learned to
trust his instincts when it comes to
images that attract him. “I have
more confidence that the craft can
shape something that’s difficult,” he
says.
O’Callahan’s stories are
like onions—layer upon layer of
meaning comes together to form a whole.
His characters are more than names
within a tale—they are real beings
to him. “They’re very important
to me,” he says. “I expect
they will be real, and my job is to
have people be as moved by them as
I am.”
Continuing the creative process
Even
as he continues to craft tales for
performance, O’Callahan is directing
his creative energies in new directions.
He is working with Richard Kuranda,
from the Actors Studio in New York
City, to mount an off-Broadway production
of Father Joe – A Hero’s
Journey. O’Callahan is also
writing a novel, a different type of
challenge for him.
“It’s been fun to work on
the novel, to see if I can bring a
character alive through just print,” he
says. Storytelling is a musical medium,
O’Callahan adds. “That’s
where my real talent is, but it’s
fun to try the silence of print.”
Holy Cross also fits into O’Callahan’s
creative future. He’d like to
expand upon work he has already done
that has touched upon Holy Cross, offering
a flavor of his time on Mount Saint
James, as well as introducing others
to the characters that he knew. It’s
time, O’Callahan says, to revisit
those years.
“There were vivid characters
at Holy Cross, there were a lot of
friendships, a lot of dramas,” he
adds. “There was a lot of discovery,
and there was a lot of growing time
because of people and teachers and
struggles. It was a very full four
years for me and since it’s my
work, I don’t want to let that
be. I want that to be part of the work,
too—the simplest moments, the
people.”
O’Callahan’s office teems
with the characters who populate his
tales, and he has many stories yet
to tell. “I love being able to
give shape to these emotions and these
ideas and these images. That’s
what the work does,” he says.
To purchase the compact disc or cassette
of the story, “Father Joe,” contact
Jay O’Callahan, via e-mail: jay@ocallahan.com;
by phone: (800)-626-5356; or by mail:
PO Box 1054, Marshfield, MA 02050.
Orders can also be placed at O’Callahan’s
Web site: www.ocallahan.com
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