City Lit Announces Cast for ARMS AND THE MAN

Full casting was announced today for City Lit's season opener, George Bernard Shaw's comedy ARMS AND THE MAN. Set during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian war, it satirizes the folly of armed conflict. City Lit's production will be directed by Brian Pastor, Artistic Director of Promethean Theatre Ensemble and director of City Lit's fall 2017 production of J.B.

Pastor's cast will be led by Scottie Caldwell as Raina Petkoff, a young woman who falls in love with a pacifistic mercenary soldier during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War in spite of her being engaged to another man. Caldwell, currently understudying the leading role of Professor Arronax in Lookingglass Theatre's production of 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEAS, appeared recently in Babes with Blades Theatre Company's THE GOOD FIGHT, First Floor Theater's THE AWAKE, and Cor Theatre's A MAP OF VIRTUE. Raina's love interest, the reluctant soldier Captain Bluntschli, will be played by Adam Benjamin, seen earlier this year as Devil Anse Hatfield in HATFIELD AND MCCOY with The House Theatre of Chicago and currently playing Master Page in MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR for The Arc Theatre.

The third player in the romantic triangle, Sergius Saranoff, will be played by Martin Diaz-Valdes. Diaz-Valdes last appeared at City Lit in FORTY-TWO STORIES and recently was in the casts of FIREFLY LOVE for Something Marvelous and OTHELLO for Invictus Theatre. Cast as Raina's father, Major Paul Petkoff, is Adam Bitterman, who has twice played Dr. Watson at City Lit - in THE SEVEN PER CENT SOLUTION and HOLMES AND WATSON - and recently completed a run as Swifty Lazar and Mike Wallace in Redtwist's FROST/NIXON. Raina's mother Catherine Petkoff will be played by Eleanor Katz, who earlier this year handled several roles in BoHo Theatre's CYRANO and is currently appearing in Oak Park Festival Theatre's YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU.

The role of Raina's servant Louka, who becomes involved in a secondary romantic triangle with Sergius and the Petkoffs' manservant Nicola, will be taken by Chelsee Carter. Carter has played Olivia in Theatre Evolve's TWELFTH NIGHT and appeared in BRINGING IRAQ HOME with Waltzing Mechanics. Nicola will be played by Linsey Falls, who was in the cast of City Lit's PROMETHEUS BOUND this past spring and was seen in Babes with Blades' THE LADY DEMANDS SATISFACTION, and in Factory Theater's FIGHT CITY.

ARMS AND THE MAN will mark the first time City Lit's has produced a Shaw play. George Orwell called ARMS AND THE MAN "probably the wittiest play (Shaw) ever wrote." Pastor notes, "The title comes from the opening words of Virgil's AENEID ("Of arms and the man I sing"), which is an apt descriptor for a play about the folly of war and the frailties of human nature." The play will open to the press on September 16.

Single tickets priced at $28 for previews and $32 for regular performances are on sale now at www.citylit.org. Senior prices are $23 for previews and $27 for regular performances. Students and military are $12.00 for all performances. Season subscriptions are available at $90.00 good for all performances or $68.00 for preview performances. Subscriptions may be ordered online at www.citylit.org.

Photo: Top row left to right: Scottie Caldwell, Adam Benjamin, Martin Diaz-Valdes
Lower row left tor right: Adam Bitterman, Chelsee Carter, Eleanor Katz, Linsey Falls

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