Marcia Eppich-Harris

Marcia Eppich-Harris

Marcia Eppich-Harris is the artistic director and founder of Southbank Theatre Company in Indianapolis. She holds a PhD in Shakespeare and Dramatic Literature and taught at the college level for over fifteen years. She is a playwright, lyricist, and composer. Marcia’s writing includes plays, musicals (composer/lyricist), fiction, poetry, scholarship, and reviews. Her creative writing is influenced by the...
Marcia Eppich-Harris is the artistic director and founder of Southbank Theatre Company in Indianapolis. She holds a PhD in Shakespeare and Dramatic Literature and taught at the college level for over fifteen years. She is a playwright, lyricist, and composer. Marcia’s writing includes plays, musicals (composer/lyricist), fiction, poetry, scholarship, and reviews. Her creative writing is influenced by the literature and history of the ancient Greeks and Romans, the British Medieval and Renaissance periods, as well as current events. She focuses thematically on politics, philosophy, the arts, gender, family, and culture. Her most recent productions include a variety of ten minute plays and performances of her full-length plays Seneca and the Soul of Nero and The Profession, as well as her musical adaptation of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, for which she wrote the music and lyrics. The Profession was published by Next Stage Press in 2023.

Plays

  • Troilus and Cressida: The Musical (full-length)
    In this musical adaptation of Shakespeare's Trojan War epic, the women finally get to have their say. Centering women characters, this adaptation takes Shakespeare's most masculine play and explores the impact of war on women and children. Lyrics and music by Marcia Eppich-Harris, with the exception of Iphigenia's Laments, by Lane Snyder. Arrangement help from Seth Young and all percussion...
    In this musical adaptation of Shakespeare's Trojan War epic, the women finally get to have their say. Centering women characters, this adaptation takes Shakespeare's most masculine play and explores the impact of war on women and children. Lyrics and music by Marcia Eppich-Harris, with the exception of Iphigenia's Laments, by Lane Snyder. Arrangement help from Seth Young and all percussion arranged by Eric Wood (not included in the score).

    The Greeks and Trojans have reached a stalemate as the Trojan War enters its seventh year. As soldiers on both sides debate where to go from here, the Trojan prince, Troilus, occupies himself with thoughts of love for Cressida, whose father has defected to the Greeks. Meanwhile, Cressida, Helen, and Cassandra wonder how to protect their hearts, minds, and bodies in a world that views them as nothing more than property.
  • Seeking Nietzsche (Full-length play)
    With the nationalist composer Richard Wagner as Friedrich Nietzsche’s surrogate father and the Nazis' appropriation of Wagner’s music and Nietzsche’s philosophy, many have questioned whether Nietzsche and his works are on the right side of history. Seeking Nietzsche ponders who determines the answer to this question. When Nietzsche falls into madness, his nationalist sister, Elisabeth, takes over the...
    With the nationalist composer Richard Wagner as Friedrich Nietzsche’s surrogate father and the Nazis' appropriation of Wagner’s music and Nietzsche’s philosophy, many have questioned whether Nietzsche and his works are on the right side of history. Seeking Nietzsche ponders who determines the answer to this question. When Nietzsche falls into madness, his nationalist sister, Elisabeth, takes over the management of his literary estate, but knowing that the siblings disagree on just about everything, Nietzsche’s friend, Lou Salomé, takes it upon herself to recover Nietzsche’s legacy and reveal his inner psychology. Meanwhile, Elisabeth outlives Nietzsche by thirty-five years and becomes close to Hitler. Influenced by Nietzsche’s theory of eternal recurrence, as well as his madness at the end of his life, the narrative jumps back and forth in time and into the afterlife to tell the tale of the ever-suffering philosopher.
  • Seneca and the Soul of Nero (Full-length play)
    History remembers Nero as one of the most bombastic and cruel emperors of the ancient world. His tutor and later advisor, Seneca, the stoic philosopher and dramatist, takes drastic measures to reign in the emperor, and in his quest to save Rome, Seneca writes some of his most enduring plays. Focused on the power and failures of the political insider, Seneca and the Soul of Nero looks back to ancient Rome to...
    History remembers Nero as one of the most bombastic and cruel emperors of the ancient world. His tutor and later advisor, Seneca, the stoic philosopher and dramatist, takes drastic measures to reign in the emperor, and in his quest to save Rome, Seneca writes some of his most enduring plays. Focused on the power and failures of the political insider, Seneca and the Soul of Nero looks back to ancient Rome to hold the mirror up to modern American politics.
  • The Profession (Full-length play)
    Valerie’s world is turned upside down when she learns she is being unjustly fired by St. Sebastian University. As she attempts to save her career from freefall, she discovers the corruption running rampant among her conservative, religious male colleagues. Meanwhile, Valerie’s star student, Marina, is lured into sex work to pay her tuition. As the costs become too high to bear, Valerie and Marina find the seedy...
    Valerie’s world is turned upside down when she learns she is being unjustly fired by St. Sebastian University. As she attempts to save her career from freefall, she discovers the corruption running rampant among her conservative, religious male colleagues. Meanwhile, Valerie’s star student, Marina, is lured into sex work to pay her tuition. As the costs become too high to bear, Valerie and Marina find the seedy underbellies of their career paths exposed, but which profession is more corrupt isn’t entirely clear. As religion, sex, and politics collide, both women must answer the question: how much should be sacrificed for a job?
  • Shit Cake (full-length play)
    Cassandra and Mimi are friends. Cassandra is married to Aaron and sleeping with Roland. Mimi is married to Roland and sleeping with Aaron. When the cheating gets exposed, how they'll untangle the mess they've made is anyone's guess.
  • Ado: An Adaptation of Much Ado about Nothing (50 minutes)
    Heather and Jake are college students, studying Shakespeare. An hour before their test, Jake wakes Heather to ask for help studying Much Ado about Nothing. They enter into a shortened version of the play in order to understand the highlights and techniques that Shakespeare uses to make his works great. Run time: about 50 minutes. (Commissioned by Marian University Theatre Department)
  • Aloha Apocalypse (Ten Minute Play)
    Ed and Sophie wake up on January 13, 2018, to learn that their Hawaiian vacation is being interrupted by nuclear war. To ease his conscience before they die, Ed confesses his long-kept secret to his wife. As they say goodbye to one apocalypse, the couple says hello to a new one.
  • Breaking the Cycle (A Monologue)
    A woman shares the history of violence in her family and decides it ends with her.
  • Confessions of the Big Bad Wolf (10 Minute play)
    The Big Bad Wolf starts to question his life choices, but before he can have a total change of heart, his wife has something to say about it.
  • Down to a Science (Monologue)
    A woman considers the planets in the solar system while thinking about systemic oppression and how we can change after the calamity of the covid-19 crisis in 2020 America.
  • Eight Drafts of a Letter Never Sent (Ten Minute Play)
    How do you handle a loss that never goes away?
  • Étude (Ten Minute Play)
    A writer and a painter study each other and contemplate the arts.
  • Five Things (Ten Minute Play)
    Battling negativity has never been so awkward.
  • Naturalized (Ten Minute Play)
    When Alex made a wish on his birthday, he had no idea it would actually come true. (Commissioned for Cardinal Stage's "At Home" series, 2020)
  • No Clients in Baseball (Ten Minute Play)
    A Therapist goes to their kid's baseball game and runs into a client who happens to have a son on the opposing team. How many strikes will it take to get out of this?
  • O, Commi-Tree (Ten Minute Play)
    After twenty-three years, a Christmas tree has had enough of capitalism ruining Christmas.
  • Once upon a Train (A One-Minute Play)
    Two strangers meet on a commuter train and wish the other could solve their problems.
  • Owning Shakespeare (Ten Minute Play)
    The year is 1754. Reverend Francis Gastrell bought and tore down the house that William Shakespeare lived and died in -- New Place. Now, he wants to own the bones of the Bard himself.
  • Scavengers (Ten Minute Play)
    Klara and Jeff met online, but they're meeting in person for their first date. When they're accosted by two teenagers, Klara and Jeff have a defining moment.
  • She Fed the Devil (10 minute play)
    Jessie gets a visit from Satan after worrying that she's going to Hell.
  • Sisyphus's Interview (A One-Minute Play)
    Sisyphus arrives in Hades/Hell and gets career counseling from Minos.
  • Squared (Ten Minute Play)
    Ellie and Jonathan go on their second date to the newest, hot restaurant owned by a famous chef, only to find that their tastes are too divergent for them to continue dating. Some irreconcilable differences are more irreconcilable than others.
  • Uncut (A one-minute monologue)
    A monologue in which a woman observes a conversation about bread.
  • The Vicarious Son (Monologue)
    When a young man's mother dies, he goes out in search of what was missing in her life.
  • The Wedding Recessional I Imagine My Parents Had in 1971 (2 minutes)
    A man and woman get married for very different reasons, and the rest is history. Terrible, terrible history.
  • The Window
    A funeral is as good an excuse as any to get pregnant, right?
  • Woo Like a King (5 minutes)
    When Henry V contemplates how to woo Katharine of Valois, he gets advice from the greatest wooer of all: Richard III.