Judith Kalaora portrays Christa McAuliffe using era-specific clothing and a set that was made to resemble McAuliffe’s social studies classroom.
Wednesday, Jan. 28, will mark 40 years since the Challenger disaster, forever linking our history of space travel to Concord social studies teacher Christa McAuliffe.
Her life and work take center stage this weekend and into next, as the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center observes the anniversary with a series of special programs.
“We really want to make sure that no one forgets Christa’s legacy,” said Melissa Edwards, executive director of the center.
“There’s a lot of resonance that her story has for folks, and I just want more and more people to reconnect with her and what she was the embodiment of, which was a love of learning, a love of exploring and thinking that space is cool.”
Christa on screen
and on display
The weekend opens with a 3 p.m. screening of “Christa,” the New Hampshire PBS-produced documentary that originally aired last year.
The film features interviews with some of McAuliffe’s former students and others who knew her. It also chronicles the unveiling of a bronze statue on the New Hampshire State House lawn last September, on what would have been her 76th birthday. McAuliffe is the first woman ever to be memorialized on the State House grounds.
On Wednesday, the center also opens a new exhibit drawn from its extensive archives. It features letters, artwork and other artifacts from the Challenger era — many never before publicly displayed.
“We have thousands of letters from around the world, from schoolkids, teachers and people writing to express their condolences after the disaster,” Edwards said. “We also have physical artifacts, like artwork that was created in Christa’s honor.”
That evening, a panel discussion and Q&A will bring together astronaut Ricky Arnold and other guests to reflect on McAuliffe’s life, her legacy in education and her impact on space history.
McAuliffe was selected from more than 11,000 applicants in July 1985 to participate in NASA’s Teacher in Space Project and had planned to conduct two lessons live from space.
More than three decades later, Arnold, along with Joe Acaba, fulfilled her mission by showcasing her lessons aboard the International Space Station in 2018.
Arnold will then join “Christa” documentary producer Kathleen Young and Amber Woods, who oversees the center’s collection of Challenger memorabilia, for a panel discussion about the many ways Christa’s legacy continues to resonate in the community.
Coming alive
in performance
The anniversary programming continues Jan. 31 with History at Play, a one-woman performance by living historian Judith Kalaora that brings McAuliffe’s story to life, showing the teacher behind the historic mission.
Kalaora was born and raised in McAuliffe’s hometown of Framingham, Mass. Over the years, she has portrayed many historical figures, but embodying McAuliffe allows her to bring the teacher’s life and dedication to students vividly to audiences.
The program, which Kalaora regularly performs in local schools, combines immersive storytelling with historical detail, giving young audiences a chance to engage with McAuliffe’s educational legacy firsthand.
“We don’t just portray people; we portray eras,” Kalaora said. “We have a lot of artifacts that are built into the set, that are very historically correct when it comes to wardrobes and costumes. Even the language that we use is of the era.”
Kalaora’s performance goes beyond the Teacher in Space Project, exploring McAuliffe’s early years, her time as a Girl Scout, and her work in classrooms across the country.
The portrayal highlights her innovative teaching methods, her advocacy for students of all backgrounds and the enduring lessons she left behind.
“She was known for having Time magazine covers all over her classroom walls, and so one of our sets have all original Time magazines, (which) is meant to be indicative of her classroom,” Kalaora said. “She’d have her students write little essays about these covers as a way to encourage critical thinking.”
Audience members engage directly with Christa through a Q&A, asking questions as though she were present.
“When people realize they can talk to Christa as though she is alive with them, that brings a profound level of immersion to the experience,” Kalaora said. “You don’t realize what immersive experiences are until something cerebral clicks and you are transported.”
Kalaora called it an “indescribable honor” to bring Christa to life for audiences.
“There are few events we have like this that are actually very precious in history, even though they may be tragic, because they are moments that remind us that we’re all human beings,” she said.
