Chris Queally continues to share his love for Shakespeare with students
Always the Teacher
Chris Queally continues to share his love for Shakespeare with students
By David Arenstam
Retirement for some is a chance to play golf , walk on the beach , or learn a new skill that for decades might have been a dream . For Chris Queally , a longtime , beloved member of the Thornton Academy faculty , retirement gave him a chance to focus on one of his true loves , the study of Shakespeare and sharing that passion with students .
For the past three years , Queally has been teaching a Shakespeare class at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institue ( OLLI ) in Portland .
" The University of Southern Maine hosts OLLI , and they have a very good relationship ," Queally said . " But the school is really run by the teachers and the students .
" The classes that are taught in the program are amazing and they tend to be on subjects that are of interest to the instructors . When I first started in the program there was a doctor who wanted to teach a class on mushrooms because he had an interest in how to find them , cook them , and he felt they might be an important part of our diet ."
The teachers develop the curriculum and send in a proposal for the class they ' d like to teach . If it ' s accepted , it is added to the catalog and students are able to enroll .
Laughing , Queally recalled the first proposal he sent to the school .
" Students have to be at least 50 years old to sign up , and I thought it might be interesting to teach the four plays that are taught most often in high school and see how they work 40 years later ," he said , pausing to tug on his beard . " The class was at 7 p . m . and no one signed up ."
Queally adjusted his proposal and the starting time for his class and during the next session , nearly 30 students enrolled .
" I decided that instead of four plays , I ' d do one play , maybe the one I knew the best , Macbeth ," he said .
After that class was finished , Queally repeated the process with a different play , and then decided to create a three-year curriculum that was focused on Shakespeare ' s history plays .
" I ' m a little more than halfway through the plays ," he said . " And when I first came up with this idea , I wasn ' t sure if I was going to teach
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