Sunrise Senior College Online Course Registration

The literary fans wait is over for our loyal Sunrise Senior College members who look forward to looking at the classics. Our resident scholar, Dr. Gerard NeCastro, is with us once again as he presents his unique insights into Shakespeare’s King Lear.  This masterpiece is widely considered his most complex and thought-provoking play. It is a tale of a man, retiring from his duties and hoping for a comfortable life in his senior years, who soon finds that these hopes are destroyed. Over this six-session class we will watch him deal with cruelty, disloyalty, madness, and injustice.

Shakespeare’s handling of all of this is not only masterful but also controversial, as his historical—or unhistorical--portrayal of this early British king so disturbed the generations to come that several playwrights rewrote the play. This may be Shakespeare’s most challenging play, but it is probably his most rewarding as well.

Instructor: Gerard NeCastro, Ph.D. - for the past thirty years Gerard has been a scholar of Medieval and Renaissance drama and has been fortunate enough to teach many courses in Shakespeare, including several of them for Sunrise Senior College.  He served on the board for the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society for over twenty years, presented a host of papers, and edited two volumes of drama. He has even directed a couple plays and acted in a few small roles.

Class Information:  This is a hybrid class - held in-person in UM@M’s room SCI 102 and via Zoom. Dr. NeCastro will be presenting sessions both in-person and on Zoom over the 6-week period. Classes are scheduled for Mondays, October 6th, 20th, 27th, November 3rd, 10th & 17th from 2:00 to 4:00 PM (no class October 13th). 

Required Book*

          Title:       King Lear

          Author:  William Shakespeare, Edited by Paul Werstine and Barbara A. Mowat

          ISBN:      978-0743482769

*Active Sunrise Senior College members (2025-26 membership year) - SSC will provide you with a copy of book if you register by September 2nd, 2025.

For non-Sunrise Senior college members this book is available on Amazon. 

All facilities at the University of Maine at Machias (UM@M) are fully handicap compliant.  The facilities used by Sunrise Senior College (SSC) at the college have ramps, elevators and handicap accessible bathrooms.  Our offsite functions and activities have various limitations and restrictions and may not be fully handicap accessible.  SSC will endeavor to identify limitations at these to you in advance.

                                                  IMPORTANT:  See Below

“Sunrise Senior College does not endorse any appeal or representation made by a presenter, non-profit organization or business during an SSC presentation.  SSC members attending the presentations may wish to pursue additional involvement with the organization or presenter based on the material that was presented and in doing so, they are acting on their own and not as part of SSC.”

This class is available to all current Maine Senior College (MSCN) Members. The general public not wishing to join Sunrise Senior College at this time may attend this class for a $20.00 fee.

Important: If at this time you are not a current member of Sunrise Senior College (SSC) but are planning to join as a member today, make sure you answer that “Your SSC membership is current” when checking out so that we can properly bill you for this class.

Sunrise Senior College (SSC) is a membership-based organization. Our SSC members receive special benefits as current members when they register for this course. Any member of another MSCN college is also able to enjoy this course, but may incur some additional charges. If you are a member of the general public, you can take this course but will have to pay additional fees associated with being a non-member. For any attendee that is not a current member of Sunrise Senior College, any materials required for the course are your responsibility. When checking out, please carefully read and answer the questions asked associated with this specific course so that you are charged appropriately for this class. Failure to do this may result in your being cancelled from the course. We hope you enjoy this offering.