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- It’s Official: We’re Expanding the Canon Full-Time 🎭
It’s Official: We’re Expanding the Canon Full-Time 🎭
Time for a Hard Launch.
Expand The Canon
July 15, 2025
Dear Beloved Expand the Canon Supporters,
We are finally making the unofficial official. e are thrilled to announce that we are officially rebranding as Expand the Canon! Since we launched our first Expand the Canon List in 2020, we have been moving towards research and advocacy and away from producing as Hedgepig Ensemble. As Expand the Canon, we are committing to uplift the incredible plays that we work year-round to discover.
What’s Changing?
Our NEW Website (expandthecanon.com) and donation pages are now under Expand the Canon
Our instagram handle (now @etcclassics)
Our official core focus as an organization, from production, to advocacy.
Speaking of new, we have an updated mission statement: drumroll…
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.
What’s staying the same?
Our obsession with unearthing new-to-you classics that you’ll love.
Our belief that restoring their legacy reshapes our culture.
Our commitment to bringing more incredible classics to stages, classrooms, and libraries around the world.
What has Expand the Canon done so far?
We’ve released FIVE Expand the Canon lists (more plays than Shakespeare’s Folio, now!) accessible through our ETC Subscription on our website.
We’ve built our working database to over NINE THOUSAND classic plays by women and gender-expansive playwrights
We have provided countless free educational resources through our podcast, social media feed and email newsletter
AND partnered with many companies such as Ma-Yi Theater, Classical Theater Harlem, Classic Stage Company, The Acting Company, Irish Rep, Island Shakespeare Festival, and More!
What does the future hold?
The future of gender expansive classics is bright! Stay tuned for more special announcements, partnerships, and projects cooking this year! If you would like to support the future of Expand the Canon and help us keep up our work of education and curation as well as future projects such as workshops, commissioned plays, and a monologue book (😉), please consider donating to our newly launched campaign!
More than anything, we would love to hear from YOU about what your company or career needs at the moment and how our services can support your work! Please contact us for information on partnerships, consulting, or educational support.
Yours in Canon Expanding,
Emily Lyon, Artistic Director,
& the Expand the Canon Team
Anima (Her Soul) by Amelia Roselli
At Island Shakespeare Festival, Washington
Directed by ETC Artistic Director, Emily Lyon
 | OPENING NEXT WEEK - July 24 - August 30 From the ISF Website: “Anima is a powerful, rarely staged drama that lays bare the tension between self-determination and the longing for connection, revealing that love—when truly seen—does not have to mean surrender.” |
Oh These Times! by Catherine The Great
Staged Reading at The Understudy (Chicago)
Produced by Midsommer Flight
 | August 12 at 7:30PM Presented by special arrangement with translator Lurana Donnels O’Malley 
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Special Episode: Expand the Canon Launch!
Listen to the Expand the Canon Team discuss the past, present, and future of our work in gender-expansive classics, and toast to our future as ETC!
Here’s a quote from our fearless leader, Emily Lyon:
Podcast Sneak Peek:
“Instead of doing a feminist take on a Shakespeare play or a Pinter play, we don’t have to bend ourselves into pretzels anymore… We can just do [ETC List] plays as they are written, which is really thrilling!… Expand the Canon is what we do, so it feels like an important clarification.”
Listen On …Or wherever you listen to podcasts by searching “This is a Classic” |  |