Expand the Canon Will Release Classic Monologue Collection by Historic Women Playwrights
Edited by artistic director Emily Lyon, the debut collection features 100+ monologues from 34 playwrights across 15 countries.
Expand the Canon Press will release its debut publication, 110 Standout Classic Monologues for Any Actor: from Overlooked Plays by Historic Women, on June 10, 2026, with presale opening May 12, 2026. Curated by Emily Lyon, Gagarin and Kalina Ko, and edited by Emily Lyon, Artistic Director of Expand the Canon, the anthology gathers monologues from plays written by women and gender expansive playwrights between 1640 and 1987, representing 34 playwrights across 15 countries on four continents.
The book addresses a persistent gap in audition preparation resources and educational texts for theater students. While Shakespeare, Chekov, and Wilde remain default sources for classical monologue material, those texts offer a narrow pool of roles, a limitation that falls disproportionately on femme performers and performers of color. 110 Standout Classic Monologues for Any Actor draws from a different pool entirely, centering playwrights whose work has long been underrepresented in acting curricula and casting rooms, as well as the classic canon itself. Tony Award-nominated actor John Douglas Thompson called it: “A monologue book of staggering consequence from classic plays written by formidable women and gender expansive playwrights. These writers and many others included in this collection have employed their craft to expand our human experience with language that put the actor through the intellectual and physical gauntlet with roles of complexity, humanity, and depth. Finally a book making the case to expand what we know about the classics and giving the artist new resources for expression.” The collection reaches across centuries and continents — from 17th-century Spanish dramatist Ana Caro to late-20th-century American writer Ntozake Shange. Other featured playwrights include Aphra Behn (England), Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Mexico), Alice Childress (United States), Lesya Ukrainka (Ukraine), George Sand (France), and Catherine the Great (Russia), among 28 others. Countries of origin span Spain, France, Mexico, England, Ukraine, the United States, Canada, Germany, Russia, Ireland, China, Italy, Japan, Chile, and India.
The 110 pieces are divided across four categories — comedy verse, drama verse, comedy prose, and drama prose — offering options for actors working in both classical and contemporary styles.
“For years, we've heard from actors that they need a wider range of classic monologues. Rather than pointing folks to our full list of curated plays to search for a piece, we're thrilled to make it easy for all actors (yes, we have plenty of pieces for men in this book!) to choose a text that connects with and inspires them.” said Artistic Director Emily Lyon.
110 Standout Classic Monologues for Any Actor will be available for presale beginning May 20, 2026, and releases June 10, 2026. Presale is available now: https://www.expandthecanon.com/store/p/110-standout-classic-monologues-for-any-actor. The title will be distributed through Expand The Canon Press and will be available to stock through Ingram. Contact info@expandthecanon.com if interested in directly stocking the book in your store, library, or classroom.
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