But it's because they actually think that the left is

stupid.

That's why.

I agree.

I agree with you.

But one thing we're leaving out, too, about Margot, you said she's silent until she sings that heartfelt song that cleverly turns pretty quickly into a vengeful expression, is that she actually utters something before that.

a slightly earlier scene when she's lighting Shabbos or Yontif candles.

It's not making me uncomfortable in this moment.

Why the proliferation of these plays?

So I think there's maybe two framing questions.

One is what you just said.

Should people even be having this debate during a genocide? The debate is certainly happening in Jewish families and communities, so why not stage it or why stage it? And then question number two is, well, why is this just such a favored kind of play right now? And I think there's a couple reasons.

One is, and this is part of our letters that you mentioned, there's a preference in the American theater for plays that stage debates, especially on hot-button issues.

You know, this is what theater does.

There's this liberal idea that in, the, the theater is somewhat dialectical form, that you hear different characters who are, to some degree sympathetic, to some degree repellent, textured people, characters who express views that you can sympathize with, that you can hold at arm's length.

That's a perfectly reasonable place to start from.

There seems to be plenty already.

Well, there's plenty of AI.

Whether there's competency is another question and what they mean by that.

It's, that, that's a very tricky area, because artificial intelligence is one of those areas that a lot of artists are exploring, but of course, with a creative imagina- you know, a human creative imagination, you know, at the control deck, right? It, it's not just feeding something into ChatGPT and say, "Write me a sonnet in, in the style of Shakespeare." But it is a very odd thing, I agree.

Uh, it's a very odd thing in that list.

The, the other thing that I think goes along with that, when you say, like, does it really need, does it really need federal money, because it's such a, it's a commercial enterprise, right? The arts projects at the National Endowment for the Arts has been supporting are, by definition, you know, have to be nonprofit.

And so one of the things that may be happening is the thinking about this kind of funds, um, is that it should go to arts production that makes money, that is, to commercial work, and forget the nonprofits.

So in five years' time, what do you expect art to look like in this country?