Julie Hammonds, author of Blue Mountain Rose, is on a mission to “complete the canon.”
What does that mean, exactly? A sanctioned or accepted group of an author’s related works is called a “canon.” Generally speaking, there are 38 plays in Shakespeare’s canon.*
Julie wants to complete the canon by seeing all of Shakespeare’s plays performed live. She saw her first play (Hamlet, of course!) in 1983. When Blue Mountain Rose was published in 2025, she thought she still had four plays to go:
- Cymbeline
- Love’s Labours Lost
- Henry VI, parts 1 and 2
Thanks to an invitation from the wonderful Lanes Coven Theater Company on the coast of Massachusetts, Julie saw Love’s Labours Lost in the summer of 2025. Then she checked her spreadsheet and realized she still had four plays to go! She’d forgotten to list one:
- Troilus and Cressida.
So, Julie still has four plays to go before she can complete the canon.
Here are the 38 plays we consider to be Shakespeare’s canon. We’ll track Julie’s progress by listing the date she first saw a play. We also give the website for that theater company (if it’s still in business). When Julie sees a performance, she writes a pocket play review. Read those here.
* Authorities disagree on the exact number. As modern scholarship reveals more about Shakespeare’s collaborations with other writers, other works may be added to the canon.
** If you happen to run a theater company and you would like to invite Julie to your show, please send us an email. Julie would love to see what you’re up to and celebrate your contribution to the glorious collaboration that is live theater.
Have you completed the canon? Do you want to?
Dear fans of Blue Mountain Rose:
We encourage you to see at least one of Shakespeare’s plays performed live this year. Maybe you will even complete the canon yourself!
If you have completed the canon, send us an email. We’ll add your name to a Wall of Canonical Fame page on this website. You can download our handy Complete The Canon tracker here.
