New Minicourses for Summer 2026
The Friends of the Madison Public Library will offer two new minicourses for the Summer 2026 semester, beginning on Wednesday, May 27, and Tuesday, June 2. The courses will feature: (1) Comedy and Drama on Stage and (2) Bach, Handel, Vivaldi: Masters of the Baroque. Each course will be held for five weeks.
The first course, Comedy and Drama on Stage, will be taught by Stacie Lents, Professor of Theater and Communication Arts, Fairleigh Dickinson University. It will explore theatrical scripts from a variety of periods and genres and examine playwrights including Moliere, Shakespeare, O’Neill, Wilson, Gilman, and Ziegler. Participants will have the opportunity to try techniques used by playwrights and to build a scene themselves.
Date/Time: Wednesday afternoons, 1:30 – 3:30pm: May 27 and June 3, 10, 17, and 24, 2026
Location: In person in the Chase Room of the Library, 39 Keep Street, Madison, NJ
The second course, Bach, Handel, Vivaldi: Masters of the Baroque, will be taught by Dr. Robert Butts, Founder and Conductor of the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey and Adjunct Professor at area colleges and universities. It will focus on three of the most important composers of the Baroque period (1700-1750): Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and Antonio Vivaldi. The course will discuss the differences in the music of the three and in their lives.
Date/Time: Tuesday afternoons, 1:30 – 3:00pm: June 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30, 2026.
Location: In person in the Chase Room of the Library, 39 Keep Street, Madison, NJ
Tuition for each course is $95. The non-credit minicourses are open to the public with no prerequisites or examinations. The minicourses are organized by the all-volunteer Friends of the Madison Public Library, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. All proceeds benefit the Madison Public Library.
Registration will begin in early May. Save your place for these popular educational offerings!
