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Expand the Canon uncovers and uplifts classic plays by women & underrepresented genders – and is a call to action to produce them.

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Expand the Canon champions women and gender-expansive playwrights whose works should have always been considered classics. For over a decade, our partnerships with theaters, educators, and advocates have established a legacy of storytelling with gender equity at its core. By curating a collection of excellent historic plays, we’re building a more inclusive and accurate theatrical canon.

TL;DR: We read dead lady plays.

Because the classics should reflect the full scope of who has shaped theatre history—not just the same dead white guys.
Women have always been writing. Many of the plays and playwrights on the official ETC List were lauded in their time, but have since been excluded from the classic canon. By demanding space for these works alongside the likes of Shakespeare, Pinter, Chekhov, and Ibsen, we create a culture that celebrates the contributions of women and gender-expansive writers throughout history. Elevating these plays in today’s theatre landscape sends a clear message: diverse voices in theatrical storytelling have always existed — and are worthy of production, reverence, and study in tandem with the classics we already know and love. This work is necessary to ensure these excellent plays find a permanent and substantial space in the canon, giving current and future generations a more complete, representative, and accurate literary history.
Learn about what we do and how to work with us.
The short answer? We read, research, and collaborate. A lot.
We spotlight women and gender-expansive playwrights too often left out of the canon, leading the theatrical canon toward gender equity through research, curation, and advocacy.
To facilitate this culture shift, we curate an annual list of excellent historic plays and advocate for their production, worldwide.
In conversation with academics, literary managers, dramaturgs, estates, translators, and librarians, we search the stacks — both the physical and digital — for classic plays by women and those who exist beyond the binary. Our research team maintains an ever-growing database of titles (currently 9,000+), stretching as far back as the 10th century, and from every continent, except Antarctica – but we’re still searching!
Our Reading Committee evaluates several hundred of these plays each year, scoring them based on quality of language, relevance, producibility, strength of plot and characters, and if they themselves would be excited to celebrate the play as a classic.
From there, our Curating Team decides on a select number of these plays to add to the public list, which is shared widely with theater makers, educators, and readers.
Our goal is to ensure more of these titles are known, translated, produced, and celebrated, creating a permanent shift in the canon. If you’d like to work with us on this initiative, contact us about partnerships, consulting, or educational support.
Learn more about the selected plays, or the readers and curators that chose them.
A guide to bonafide classics by women and underrepresented genders we curated to make slotting these plays into your season and syllabi easy.
Our plays span 1600-1990, 16 countries, 11 languages of origin, cast sizes ranging from 1 to 25+, many styles and topics… and are all excellent.
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Want to hear more about our mission and discover hidden gem classics? Check out This Is A Classic: The Expand the Canon Podcast!

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“Thank you for this production. I can’t believe for 250 years we didn’t know this existed!”

— Audience Member, ISF's A Bold Stroke for a Husband

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