Albee, at 80, going strong. Any questions?

"I love to be surprised by what actors discover in the characters," says Pulitzer-winning playwright Edward Albee. (SARA KRULWICH/THE NEW YORK TIMES)

In his 50-year career, playwright Edward Albee has dug below the surface of complacency, upended notions of theatrical form, and mined rich humor and devastating tragedy from what initially appear to be simple domestic situations. Along the way, he's earned three Pulitzer Prizes and three Tony Awards, as well as critical drubbings and a period of banishment from Broadway in the 1980s.

Although he turned 80 this month, Albee has not slowed down, debuting his new farce "Me, Myself & I" this year at the McCarter Theatre in New Jersey, directing his early one-acts "The American Dream" and "The Sandbox" for the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York (running through April 19), and shepherding "The Occupant," his play about the artist Louise Nevelson, onto the stage at the Signature Theatre in New York, where it had a few performances in 2001 before the illness of actress Anne Bancroft forced its cancellation. Mercedes Ruehl takes on the role May 6-June 29.

Local audiences can view two of Albee's Pulitzer-winning plays this spring: "A Delicate Balance" is at Merrimack Repertory Theatre through April 6, and "Three Tall Women" is at the Lyric Stage Company tonight through April 26.

We asked actors and directors who have worked on Albee's plays for questions for the playwright. Although their initial response was an insistence that all the answers they need are in the text, they did come up with a few queries for the man considered one of the world's greatest living playwrights. When told of their hesitancy in a phone interview from his home in New York, Albee was amused, but also said he encourages questions, especially from actors who are trying to find their way with characters.

Kathleen Turner, actress in 2005 Broadway revival of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Q: When you first take on a role like Martha [in "Virginia Woolf?"] the sheer size of it is terrifying. But Edward has casting approval, so you start out knowing he believes you can do it. The challenge for Bill [Irwin] and I was to get to the point where Martha's intelligence, ambition, and humor show through even though she's completely stuck and only able to express herself through a man. God knows, that would have sent me to the bottle. But what Bill and I decided was that there was ultimately a great deal of hope in George and Martha's marriage and that they would find a way to go on. That's a question Edward would never answer for us.

A: All of the best plays follow a character's emotional journey. Look at "King Lear." Look at "Macbeth." I love to be surprised by what actors discover in the characters. I'm directing two plays that I wrote 45 years ago [at the Cherry Lane Theatre], but I'm finding the actors bring new life to them. I can't tell how audiences will respond to them now, and I don't think about how the plays will resonate with audiences today. My plays were written at a particular time and can't be updated. That's ridiculous. People update Shakespeare because he's in the public domain and can't get his agent to call and complain.

Charles Towers, artistic director of Merrimack Repertory Theatre, director of "A Delicate Balance"

Q: Albee's text is so precise, it functions like a musical composition, with the text providing a window into the character's emotion. Does he think of himself as a composer?

A: Absolutely. I learned about silence and duration from Samuel Beckett. He knows exactly how long a two-second pause is versus a three-second pause and what happens when you use each one. I know the emotional distinction between a semicolon and a period. I think I've said before, I don't throw punctuation in like raisins into oatmeal. That's why I'm so particular about not wanting people to change my scripts. You wouldn't dream of changing notes in a musical composition. You play the notes as written, and build in your own interpretation of the characters.

Spiro Veloudos, artistic director of the Lyric Stage Company, director of "Three Tall Women"

Q: Albee's plays don't require directorial pyrotechnics. Does he have any advice for directors taking on his plays?

A: I enjoy directing my own plays, but it's an enormous amount of work. I never write a role for an actor, I write characters, and I enjoy finding actors who can become the characters. I'm lucky because I've seen many of the actors I've cast in other plays. But, of course, you always take your chances. Once you've found the right actors, most of the director's job is complete. As a director I find you sit around for six hours and if you're lucky you say one thing that's helpful. But I think you have to make sure everyone is in the same world, in the same room so that they are talking to each other.

Paula Plum, actress in "Three Tall Women" and "The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?" at the Lyric Stage

Q: Although Albee has written dozens of plays, theater companies tend to be drawn to a few particular ones. Is there any one of your plays you'd like to see revived that hasn't been revived?

A: Playwrights love to see any and every one of their plays produced. But I do see some of my plays produced more often than others. I do feel that my plays are all of a piece, but I hope I don't repeat myself, although that is possible. One play I'd like to see revived is "The Man Who Had Three Arms" [a 1983 play about a bitter man whose fame has passed him by]. I don't feel it got a fair shot the first time around.

Brian McEleney, actor in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" at Trinity Repertory Company

Q: So much of Albee is built into the language. With George especially, just when you think you're getting a handle on him, there's that huge speech in the third act in Latin and the play lurches strongly out of the real into the surreal. Does Albee have any advice to help an actor balance between the real and the surreal?

A: I think if the actor gets stuck in the reality they miss the subtlety of the play, and so will the audience. I think it was George S. Kaufman who said, 'A message is something that should be delivered by Western Union.' I'm not interested in writing an essay, with an obvious moral lesson. But it's important that the plays be socially, intellectually, and morally useful.

Some things in the plays are more opaque than others. I can't make the assumption that everything is obvious. But that's the wonderful thing about theater. People hear different things. They see things I wasn't aware of. There are some things people react to negatively, and that means I'm disturbing them, and that's good. You try to make it hard for the audience to avoid participating.

In memoriam

Phillip Patrone, 48, an Elliot Norton Award-winning actor, died of lung cancer last week. Patrone, who was most recently seen in the New Repertory Theatre's production of "The Pillowman," had also been a producer and host on WCRB. Patrone's stage performances were marked by a playful sincerity that made audiences root for him. The Lyric Stage and the New Repertory Theatre are planning a memorial later this year.

Notes

Tom Stoppard's "Rock 'n' Roll," recently announced as part of the New Rep season, will instead be a co-production with the Huntington and the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. New Rep will replace it with Sarah Ruhl's much-lauded "Eurydice." . . . Actors' Shakespeare Project has added a performance on April 3 at 1 p.m. to its mostly sold-out run of "The Tempest" at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center. 866-811-4111, actorsshakespeareproject.org. . . . The Huntington has announced casting for "She Loves Me," the final production of its season and last show directed by outgoing artistic director Nicholas Martin. The Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock musical, based on the film "The Shop Around the Corner," will star Brooks Ashmanskas, Kate Baldwin, and Nancy E. Carroll and will run May 16-June 15 before opening the summer season at Williamstown Theatre Festival, where Martin is taking over as artistic director. 617-266-0800, huntingtontheatre.org. . . . The Huntington's Breaking Ground Festival starts Thursday with "Unknown Soldier," a new musical by Daniel Goldstein and Michael Friedman. Friday brings Playwriting Fellow Ken Urban's "Sense of an Ending." On Saturday, Mat Smart's "Thomas Repair" will be followed by Nathan Louis Jackson's "Broke-ology," which will have its world premiere at Williamstown this summer. Sunday brings Melinda Lopez's "Caroline in Jersey." 617-266-0800, tickets@huntingtontheatre.org.