(St. Mary's City, MD) November 5, 2009 -Arms and the Man, Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw's comedy about love and war, opens Thursday, November 12, and runs through Sunday, November 22, in the Bruce Davis Theater on the St. Mary's College of Maryland (SMCM) campus. Produced by the department of theater, film, and media studies and directed by faculty member and Washington, D.C.-based actor Michael Ellis-Tolaydo, Arms and the Man performs at 8 p.m. November 12-14 and 19-21 and 2 p.m. November 15 and 22 . Ticket prices are $4 or $6. To make reservations, call the Theater Box Office at 240-895-4243 or e-mail boxoffice@smcm.edu.

Shaw's comedy kicks off St. Mary's College's theater and arts season in the newly renovated Bruce Davis Theater in the Montgomery Hall Fine Arts Center. In addition to Arms and the Man, the season includes the Kander and Ebb musical favorite, Cabaret, which opens in March 2010, and the third annual TFMS film series on environmental film, which takes place in April.

The theater underwent major renovations this past summer. Balconies that surrounded all four sides of the auditorium were removed, a new state-of-the-art light and sound booth and lighting grid system were installed, and the sound system was upgraded to include sound assist technology for the hearing impaired. The renovated space now accommodates larger audiences, more flexible seating arrangements, and improved sightlines.

The Nov. 12 performance will begin with a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the grand re-opening of the theater. The celebration begins at 7 p.m. with a gathering in the theater lobby. Drinks and light snacks will be served. The ribbon cutting takes place at 7:30 p.m. before the house opens for the performance. The pre-show festivities are free and open to the public. "It's great to be able to celebrate the reopening of the theater with opening night of our first show of the season," chair of the department Merideth Taylor said. "We hope that folks will take part in the festivities and stay to enjoy the performance."

Set in late fall 1885 in the middle of the Serbo-Bulgarian war, Arms and the Man follows the travails of enemy Serbian soldier, Captain Bluntschli, who sneaks into young Bulgarian Raina Petkoff's bedroom and begs her to hide him. Bluntschli has one peculiarity, which attracts Raina to him: his pockets hold no pistol cartridges, only chocolates.

To this unlikely romantic mix, Shaw adds Raina's jealous Serbian soldier-lover, Sergius Sarnoff,  her bumbling soldier-father, and a social-climbing mother; and invites us to delight in how everyone's comings-and-goings expose the sham behind time-worn romantic notions of love, war, and valor in this hilarious look at life in the "Old World" of Eastern Europe. "Arms and the Man," said director Tolaydo, "is an entertaining, funny, charming play with serious undertones which hopefully you will think about for a while after the performance is over."

St. Mary's College of Maryland, designated the Maryland state honors college in 1992, is ranked one of the best liberal arts schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and Kiplinger's. The Princeton Review named it a "best value college" in its 2009 edition. Founded in 1840 as Maryland's "monument school" commemorating the state's first capital, SMCM is the state's only public honors college, offering "an Ivy-level College with a public-school price tag" (Newsweek).

Some 2,000 students attend the college, which has the highest graduation rate for all Maryland public colleges and universities, and an SAT average for student admissions of 1252. The school's waterfront campus along the St. Mary's River in Southern Maryland is home to the 2007 National Intercollegiate Sailing Association Women's, Sloop, and Team champions.