Blood and Beauty

From searing Holocaust knife fights to clowns hurling pies, "Blood And Beauty" offers a dozen unmatched opportunities for actresses to display their stage combat expertise. Filling a critical need in the theatrical canon, these short plays not only provide women with exciting, gripping, and frequently hilarious stage fights to perform, but also present severe acting challenges. "Dark Lady": Shakespeare's sonnets come to life. "Red Riding Hood Redux": a fairy tale heroine with attitude. "Death Song": a young Amazon learns the horrible truth of her parentage. "Assail! Assail!": the perils of shopping. "Thorns": a prequel to "Macbeth.""Surrender, Dorothy": an all-female construction crew works out a few issues. "Strumpet Voluntary": a true episode from the life of 17th century swordmistress La Maupin. "West": an SS officer seeks redemption from a prisoner he once loved. "Ladies First": a fight class awaits the arrival of the female Errol Flynn. "Boot Camp": basic training with a silly twist. "Fair Warning": a fine-arts auction where the bidding is literally cut-throat. "In Russet Mantle Clad": two Napoleonic soldiers share a deadly secret.