Perhaps the program was meant to illustrate how dialogues are not always harmonious; indeed the writers’ personalities shown forth in their relation to the sounds of the string quartet. A strident Rula Jebreal, whose story is perhaps best known in Julian Schnabel’s film adaptation of her book, Miral, did not seem to notice the music and talked over it, asking key questions of Americans, not provocative, she insisted, but to provoke national debate: why is there no real national debate about Iran, why are the poorest left behind for health care, why are the Republicans so obsessed with women’s bodies? Satrapi free-formed, recounting the plot of Persepolis, her graphic memoir of waking up one day in Teheran to find the mullahs ruling the day, making little school girls such as herself confine themselves to traditional dress and behavior. Distracted by the beautiful music, she stopped talking. The consummate man of theater, Tony Kushner managed to tuck his reading of a dramatic monologue into the music’s folds. Self-conscious about this effort’s success, he announced that he would be bringing the Kronos Quartet to his therapy session.