Beyond the Culture Wars: A Conversation

American Theatre – November 2013: Playwright J.T. Rogers and economist Eric Helland have been friends since childhood. Rogers, the author of Blood and Gifts, The Overwhelming and other plays, and Helland, a professor of economics at Claremont McKenna College in Los Angeles and a former adviser to the White House under President George W. Bush, found themselves, as they grew to adulthood, engaged in raging political disagreements. One ongoing argument concerns the propriety and the efficacy of public funding for the arts.