This is a Classic: The Expand the Canon Theatre Podcast

If you’re looking for a cousin of commedia with a razz on dads… Nannuccio & His Fifteen Stepdaughters by Sister Annalena Odaldi should do the trick. This short and bittersweet farce tells the tale of Nannuccio Di Pierone, a widower down on his luck, looking to remarry using the goods and riches his deceased wife left in her will. The only problem is, she actually left everything for her fiftee...

If you’re looking for a one-person piece that grapples with the legacy of women writers and the artifice of gender… consider this sharp short by Wu Zao. In A Reflection in Disguise, a writer grapples with her inner idealized artistic self and the boxes society has placed her into. She poses before a portrait of herself cross-dressed as a male scholar and sings to the portrait about her frustration...

If you’re looking for a satirical critique of the blinding effects of media and consumerism… look no further than Dolores Prida’s Screens. In Prida’s masterful work, three telenovela stars reenact the highlights of their career while trapped in their house. As an ominous apocalypse looms outside, they continue to restage these scenes. The lines between life and art start to blur to disastrous outc...

If you’re looking for a snappy satire of the sexist dating scene… consider this tight one-act from literary luminary Germaine de Staël. Although he’s always lived in Germany, Monsieur de la Morlière glorifies all things from France as the pinnacle of culture –– and therefore secured a noble French suitor for his daughter, Sophie. However, our clever heroine is ready with a deliciously silly scheme...

*drumroll* We are now, officially, Expand the Canon – all day every day. Join some of our fabulous team to toast to this long-time-coming shift. We discuss the change, what all we do here at Expand the Canon, and what we're looking forward to for our next chapter. Mission: Expand the Canon champions women and gender-expansive playwrights whose works should have always been considered classics....

This month's two plays: The Guitarrón by Lynne Alvarez & The Girls from the Five and Ten (Les filles du 5-10-15) by Abla Farhoud If you’re looking for the hot queer drama and dreamy magical realism of Angels in America set against the beaches of Veracruz… look no further than The Guitarrón by Lynne Alvarez. During a cataclysmic fishing drought, six members of the local village fight to fin...

This month's two shorter plays: The Inheritance by Kim Ja-Rim 김자림 and Rain of Ice by Hasegawa Shigure If you’re looking for the character-driven naturalism of Strindberg through the lens of intersectional poverty… consider this one-act drama from the mother of Japanese realism. In her final hours, the terminally ill Tamayo wrestles with delusions of the past as well as anxieties of the pres...

This month's two shorter plays: Pleasure by Rachilde and Three Women by Sylvia Plath! If you’re looking for a play that reveals how the pursuit of sensuality can both liberate and ensnare… then Rachilde’s Pleasure is the two-hander of your dreams. An intimate, delicate, and emotionally charged conversation between two young lovers, Pleasure offers feminist undertones with a dangerous and eroti...

We're back to expanding the canon! The 5 curators for our 5th List are here to dish about what makes this year's list of plays special. Not only are they plays of a different ilk, but we have WAY MORE this time for you to dig into! Dive in with Emily Lyon, Triza Cox, Skye Pagon, Kalina Ko, and Gagarin for another year of plays that are CLASSICS.

If you’re looking for an ensemble-lead choreopoem that explores the Black experience in the entertainment industry… consider Spell #7 by celebrated playwright Ntozake Shange. Set in the late 70s in St. Louis, Missouri, the play welcomes us into a world not too far from our own, forcing us to reckon with the realities of the “isms” in creative spaces. The play takes us through the lives of 9 charac...

If you’re looking to explore the transactional nature of relationships when status is on the line… consider this tender-hearted hilarious romp complete with gossip, political intrigue, and romantic complications. Social prestige and customs maintain the delicate ecosystem that is the royal court, but when Moncade, the King’s sensitive and widely beloved favorite, is cast out, chaos ensues. As Monc...

If you’re looking for a lush, poetic drama with a powerhouse queer heroine and an intersectional view of indigeneity… consider this moving piece from an eminent Chicana dramatist. Josefa is a pillar of her rural community - unflappable, benevolent, formidable, respected. Why then is there a fresh bloodstain on her floor? As the rest of the village women gather for a ritual to find husbands, Josefa...

If you’re looking for a whirling political drama centering a mother’s feminist awakening… consider this dreamlike exploration of familial ties and civic responsibility. Nearly two years after the killing of her son, Sujata continues to struggle with his involvement in the uprising that resulted in his death. She embarks on a journey to understand her son and in doing so comes to recognize her own...

If you’re looking for an irreverent class comedy featuring a gritty female lead… consider this romp of mistaken identities by the 18th century master of dialogue, Hannah Brand. The willful and mischievous Adelinda is set to marry the wealthy Count D’Olstain – much to her weary parents’ relief. The only problem – Adelinda is already secretly married to a lowly servant! Schemes and mistaken identiti...

If you’re looking for a tragi-comedy where the lyric insight of Virginia Woolf meets the electric cruelty of Hedda Gabler… consider this post-war portrait of a woman created and creating through destruction. Claire Archer attempts to transcend the constraints of modern life through the breeding of new plants, despite a literal Tom, Dick, and Harry trying to stop her. As the blossoming of her lates...

If you’re looking for a plot-twist-filled farce with bold schemes to fight prejudice… consider this comedy from the elusive Irish playwright, Alicia Sheridan Le Fanu. When the eldest daughter of an upper-class English family marries an Irishman, she is cast out and the whole family is thrown into disarray. But what if that Irishman comes back to prove himself to the family… disguised as a distingu...

If you’re looking for a madcap Comedy of Errors with chaotic Gen-Z wit… consider this arch, rollicking take on love and freedom from German dramatist Charlotte Von Stein. Once upon a time, Menonda was happily in a relationship – until her brother, bent on destroying all romantic love, got between her and her beloved. Now, due to a mistaken kidnapping and several misplaced identities, she finds her...

This season, we have 8 partner companies diving into our 2023 list with us and producing readings. We were honored to have 4 of our New York partners represented –– Jessie Austrian from Fiasco Theater, Nicola Murphy Dubey from Irish Repertory Theatre, Lou Moreno from INTAR Theater, and Devin Brain from The Acting Company. Director of Outreach and Development Triza Cox lead the panel, digging into...

If you’re looking for a dramedy about reframing your life and learning to fall in love (with yourself) again… consider this powerful Chinese play about love, loss, and artistic identity. Taking place in West China during the Sino-Japanese War, Heaven Challenges centers around Shih Kun-Yi, a housewife who has given up her love of painting to serve her husband. When he divorces her in an attempt to...

Now that we've released our 4th list and have 36 featured plays by historic women playwrights, our curators get together to dish about our favorite plays. Recorded live at Caveat NYC on January 22, 2024, this is Part 1 of 2.

If you always wished you could see Lady Macbeth take on Don Juan… consider this reimagining of the Don Juan myth from a celebrated Ukrainian author. Donna Anna is looking to transcend her position in society, and an ineffectual Don Juan might just be her ticket out – inciting an impassioned game of cat and mouse. Told in the Spanish Golden Age tradition, this play’s masquerade balls, moody cemeter...

If you’re looking for an atmospheric romance where the truest love story is one with home and community… consider this heartfelt struggle between new and old. After 30 years in the Big City, Antonio Lozano returns with his adult children to his village in Mexico, focused on innovating farming practices in his rural home. The cosmopolitan meets the pastoral, conflict abounds, and the entire valley...

Artistic Director Karen Ann Daniels of Folger Theatre joined us for a panel last year after we released our 2022 list. Enjoy this replay of her conversation with Artistic Director Emily Lyon on what makes a classic, what their value is today, and how to use them going forward.

If you’re looking to blend the political intrigue of Shakespeare’s histories with the visceral drama of a Greek tragedy… consider Catherine Bernard’s tight verse play featuring a moral yet conflicted Queen trapped in a tragic love quadrangle . Caught between her heart and her sense of place, Laodamia, the Queen of Epirus, has always lived a life of self sacrifice– until she falls in love with her...

If you’re looking for a live-wire take on fossil fuel and the American labor system… consider this incendiary drama exploring the intersection of racism, capitalism and environmentalism. Set against the backdrop of a rural coal mine, a young Black man struggles to confront his heritage when his white father arrives to survey the mine his white daughter is set to inherit. A tack-sharp look at syste...