Adult Learning, with current and former Allegheny Faculty, is available to adult members of the community. Learning, reflection, and conversation, around topics grounded in both the humanities and the social sciences, prevail. Reasonably priced courses consist of weekly 60-90 minute classes over 8-12 weeks. There are exceptions. Student voice and choice are respected.

Fall 2025 Course Offerings

A TALE OF TWO COMEDIES

Facilitator: Jim Bulman 

Classes 1:30-2:30 at The First Presbyterian Church
Eight Tuesdays: Sept. 16, 23, 30, October 7, 14, 21, 28 & Nov.4.
Films will be shown at 3:00 pm on October 6 and 28 

Cost: $75.00  

This brief course will focus on two distinctly different comedies that share surprising similarities. Written at least five years apart, Much Ado About Nothing, popular as one of Shakespeare’s most romantic comedies, and the less popular All’s Well That Ends Well, widely regarded as a “problem play”, both pit the conventions of fairy tale and romance traditions against greater psychological realism and challenges to gender stereotypes. Both feature resourceful women who have to negotiate the misogyny of patriarchal societies; both offer critiques of social class divisions, female agency, and toxic masculinity. Yet despite flirting with the possibility of a tragic outcome, each in its own way has a conventionally happy ending, thus earning its place among the comedies. There will be four class discussions of each play: the first two devoted to a close reading of the text, the last two devoted to an exploration of the performative possibilities of each one (there will be showings of a film and video clips for both plays), including how issues of gender and culture can be translated from their Elizabethan context for contemporary audiences – including American audiences whose assumptions about gender roles, social class, race, ethnicity, and military culture are often at odds with those of the audiences for whom the plays were written more than 400 years ago. 

Classes will meet for an hour each Tuesday at 1:30 in the Presbyterian Church, from September 16 to November 4. Dates and times for two film showings will be announced later. Videos of other productions will be available for streaming at home, on demand. Participants will be asked to purchase the following editions, both volumes in the Folger Shakespeare Library series. Both of them include excellent explanatory notes and critical essays: Much Ado About Nothing, ed. Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine. Simon and Schuster, 1995 (updated edition, 2018). All’s Well That Ends Well, ed. Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine. Simon and Schuster, 2020. 

To register for the Shakespeare class with Jim Bulman please send contact information to: jan@creatinglandscapes.org 

You may bring payment to first class, or send check to: Creating Landscapes Adult Learning 596 Chestnut Street.