"A playwright...first and foremost has to compel people."

In this Power of Theater podcast, part of the Kennedy Center Education Department's American College Theater Festival's summer intensive for playwrights, playwright Lee Blessing discusses the difference between writing for the theater and writing for television and film. For more information on the American College Theater Festival, visit www.kennedy-center.org/education/actf/.

"When you sit in a theater, you're sitting closer to a complete stranger that you ever would in your own living room. You haven't just seen a show, you've been part of something."

Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is the story of George and Martha, two of the most famous roles ever written for the stage. Over the course of one wickedly hilarious evening, the cocktails come out and the gloves come off as this riveting duo takes their two young guests on the ride of their lives. Direct from Broadway and London's West End, the production at the Kennedy Center featured its acclaimed original stars-- Kathleen Turner (2006 London Evening Standard Theatre Award, Best Actress) and the dazzling Bill Irwin (2005 Tony Award, Best Actor).

In this Power of Theater podcast, part of the Kennedy Center Education Department's Performance Plus program, actress Kathleen Turner (Serial Mom) discusses the importance of theater as a means of creating a shared experience among strangers and her need to touch the lives of her audience. For more information on Performance Plus, visit kennedy-center.org/plus.

Come to this play with an open and pure sense of imagination, and it will embrace you."

Since its first performance in 1953, Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot has generated controversy with its unconventional plot and disturbing themes. Audiences have reacted strongly, with many embracing the play, others rejecting it, but all debating its meaning. The play, which interweaves a tragic sense with circus-like elements, remains popular and influential decades later as a piece of puzzling literature, an example of unusual staging, and also an expression of the thinking of its time.

This in-depth discussion, recorded during the run of The Gate Theatre's production of Waiting for Godot at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, features the four adult actors (Alan Stanford, Barry McGovern, Johnny Murphy and Stephen Brennan) and the director of the production, Walter D. Asmus. This podcast features excerpts from the complete discussion program, which will be made available by the Kennedy Center Education Department in the future.

"Theater at its best is always a mirror. It's a reflection of who we are."

Twelve Angry Men deals with issues of prejudice and fear of "the other" but also promotes the ideas of debate and reasonable doubt. The characters in the play argue opposing positions with plausible conviction, and the audience members are left to decide their interpretation of truth and fact, despite what others may believe.

In this podcast, part of the Power of Theater series, actors Richard Thomas (The Waltons) and Randle Mell (24) discuss performing in the stage version of Twelve Angry Men and how the play illustrates the power of one voice in a system designed to reward the collective majority. To view this 60 minute program in its entirety, visit kennedy-center.org/pwtv.

When asked to describe the work of August Wilson, actor James Earl Jones said, "...when he writes he leaves some blood on the page. You can't get that stuff out of yourself without hurt. It's not therapy; it's more like revelation." August Wilson was one of America's most significant and successful playwrights. Less than 20 years ago, he began an ambitious playwriting project: to chronicle the central issues African-Americans have faced by writing one play for each decade of the 20th century.

Wilson's work accurately portrays the black experience in America-addressing themes of struggle (violence, economic injustices, unemployment, poverty and neglect, racism, civil rights, unlawful imprisonment, the legacy of slavery) as well as themes of triumph (the strength of family ties and loyalties, the uniqueness of black culture and the fight to preserve and value it).