Athol Fugard

South African playwright and actor Athol Fugard. For years Fugard fought apartheid on the stage in his plays including "My Children! My Children," "The Blood Knot," (in which he put a black actor alongside a white actor on the same stage) and "Sizwe Banzi is Dead." For his efforts Fugard's passport was revoked, and he was put under virtual house arrest from 1967-1971. His new play "Valley Song" is his first play in the post-apartheid Africa.

Athol Fugard is a white South African playwright, director, and actor. His work as a playwright is acclaimed for exploring the social and psychological consequences of apartheid. Fugard formed an integrated theater company in the 1960s in defiance of South African norms. Many of his plays have been produced in the United States.

Actor Zakes Mokae. He now appears in the film "The Serpent and the Rainbow." He began his acting career in his native South Africa where he and playwright Athol Fugard founded the Serpent Theater. They shocked audiences by becoming the first black and white actors to appear on stage together. Mokae continues to appear in Fugard's plays, in addition to his film career.

Zakes Mokae built his career on the success of early roles in plays by Athol Fugard, a white South African who was against apartheid. Mokae joins Fresh Air to discuss the importance of those plays within the context of his home country.