Let me tell you a little bit about my life. I'm originally from Shullsburg, Wisconsin, but now my life partner, Brian, and I, live in Monona, a suburb of Madison. We bought our home here in April, 1997, and we've been together since June 1, 1991. I turned 50 this year, while on a trip to Ireland. Brian's birthday is on December 28, but he's nine and a half years younger.
I work at Sound Billing, a company that does billing for quick change oil stores around the country. Before that I worked for Chamberlain Research for five plus years. Prior to Chamberlain Research I had been the Direct Services Coordinator at OutReach, Madison's LGBTQ community center, for just over two years. And before that I worked for an answering service, ICS (originally called Answer Madison) for seven years (as an operator, supervisor, and operations manager).
Since the advent of the digital camera I have turned into something of a photography nut. It's something I always enjoyed but could never afford due to the cost of film and developing. But now the quality of digital camera prints has gotten really good. In the last few years I've had two photo shows in Madison. I wrote a book based on the work from those shows, plus additional photos, and came within a whisker of having it published. Some of my photos have been published in various places and one of them, Bear Claw won grand prize in an Animal Planet contest in December of 2001. A couple years ago several of my photos were published in the book, Wisconsin 24/7, one of the state books in the hugely successful America 24/7 series and one of those was sold to a company in France to use in a meeting. Most recently I sold a photo of a centipede for use in a new Animal Planet book, The World's Most Extreme Bugs. It was published in May, 2007.
Brian and I are also both very involved in theater. We have worked both together and individually on dozens of projects. Most of our work has been at Broom Street Theater, a unique, experimental theater that produces primarily original works by local playwrights. In 2005 I was named the Artistic Director of the theater after the death of Joel Gersmann, who ran it for over 35 years. Brian and I are both on the Board of Directors as well. Brian is also the Artistic Director of Proud Theater. If you're in the Madison area, look for us. We're almost always involved in something in the local theater scene.
Brian will be opening a new play, Dork Side of the Moon, in November. My most recent was my 18th full-length play, Debs in Prison, a drama about a group of Socialist socialites who end up in prison after protesting World War I. My next one will be Leprechaun in early 2008. I also wrote monologues for a cemetery tour sponsored by the Wisconsin Veterans' Museum for six straight years, but which I decided to stop doing after that. In 2003 it won an award from the American Association of State and Local History.
Besides all this I recently became the theater columnist for Our Lives magazine here in Madison.
Finally, I have another, newer web page devoted specifically to my writing and photography that can be located at www.callenharty.com.
The July 30, 2005 edition of the Capital Times ran an article about me being named the new Artistic Director of Broom Street Theater.
The Capital times also ran this article on my last play.
There was also a sidebar article on Joel, the Artistic Director of Broom Street Theater acting in the play.
On August 6 of 1998 I was featured as the cover story of the Rhythm section of the Wisconsin State Journal & Capital Times, a weekly arts publication of the two Madison daily newspapers. You can read the article by clicking the cover photo. In July of 1999, I was featured in Isthmus, Madison's weekly newspaper, and in mid-October of 1999 was featured in the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald. In 2002 I was featured in an article in the Monroe Evening-Times.
At the end of 1998 I became a paid writer for the first time in my life, with an article entitled Family Reunions that was published in the December, 1998 issue of Scott Stamp Monthly and by doing free-lance work for Dane County Kids magazine. A couple years ago a poem of mine, Spring, was selected to appear in the 2001 edition of The Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Calendar and I won a first place in photo contest sponsored by Scott Stamp Monthly, as well as the grand prize in the Animal Planet contest mentioned above. I've also gotten involved in researching my family genealogy. I wrote a book on my great-great grandfather and his brother. You can see some of the genealogy results by checking out Callen's Genealogy Page. I've definitely been keeping busy with a number of projects.
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Site last updated 10/21/07