“The Underpants”

By Carl Sternheim 
Adapted by Steve Martin, Directed by Sue Trigg
Playing: January 16 — February 7, 2009
Free preview January 15, 2009 - donations welcomed
This play is rated : PG-13

Actress Xanadu Bruggers, photographer, Patrick Tracy

Sue has assembled an excellent cast for The Underpants. Bonnie DeChant was last seen in RPE’s outstanding production of Bus Stop. Bonnie has performed in regional theatres across the country and was awarded a Best Actress Award, performing the one-woman show The Moonshot Tape in Aspen, Colorado. John Blytt played an unforgettable Sylvia in RPE’s Ruthless, The Musical and also appeared in RPE’s The School for Scandal along with Xanadu Bruggers and Craig Eychner. Craig’s past experience includes Oklahoma, South Pacific, Rebecca, Barefoot In The Park, and Blithe Spirit. Michael Sally has appeared in productions at theatres throughout the Bay Area, including Hillbarn, Hapgood, Chanticleers, Bus Barn, Ross Valley Players, Dragon Productions, Theatre-in-the Woods, and Actors Ensemble of Berkeley. Eddie Peabody showed his comedy skills as an ugly sister in RPE’s 2005 production of Thinderella.

Steve Martin is a man of prodigious talents. An expert in sketch comedy with frequent appearances on Johnny Carson and Saturday Night Live (where he was never a cast member despite urban legend), Martin has had audiences in stitches for several decades. A recent winner of the Mark Twain Comedy Award, Martin has established a stellar reputation for comedy. Yet he has always regarded himself as an accidental comic, even though by the end of the 1970s he had a rock-star reputation. His real goal was the movies and he has built a considerable career on the screen in almost 50 films, becoming a bankable Hollywood star, with such movies as The Jerk, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, The Man with Two Brains and All Of Me. Martin has also starred in more serious movies like Grand Canyon.

Martin has always believed in the seriousness of comedy and has been winning writing awards since his 1969 writing Emmy for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. His writing career has included 1990s pieces for The New Yorker, later published in a collection called Pure Drivel. He is also the author of two novellas, The Shopgirl (later a movie) and The Pleasure of My Company. His 2007 memoir, Born Standing Up, was critically acclaimed.

Danville website: Town of Danville and Role Players Ensemble