I have a confession to make. When I retired from teaching, I didn’t imagine myself here. I thought retirement would be quieter — a chance to read more, write a little, maybe finally sort out the garage. What I didn’t picture was standing in a community hall in Alexandria on my 80th birthday, watching actors

My name is Peter Mansell, and I’ve spent most of my life in front of a classroom. Thirty-five years teaching drama in Waterloo — trying to convince teenagers that Shakespeare was worth their time, that stories mattered, that the right words at the right moment could actually change something. I believed it then. I still