Steve Martin enrolled in college as a philosophy major, but soon switched to theater. He began playing comedy clubs and left school when he was offered a job as a writer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. When the writers won an Emmy, 23-year-old Martin was among them.
His career as a film star began in the 1970s and in the decades that followed, Martin’s many films included Father of the Bride, Parenthood, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Roxanne, which he also wrote, winning a Writer’s Guild of America award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
In 1993, Martin wrote his first play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile. The first reading was in Martin’s home with Tom Hanks reading Pablo Picasso. The play premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre.
In 2002, Martin adapted Carl Sternheim’s 1910 comedy The Underpants for the Classic Stage Company in New York. In his own words:
“I have come to understand that however true I intend to remain to the original text, the adaptation is continuously influenced, altered, and redefined by modern times. Sternheim’s play is ribald, satirical, and quirky. I hope I have retained those elements.”
