3 Minutes with Playwright Claude Solnik

Patch speaks with playwright Claude Solnik, who works by day as a business journalist on Long Island. Solnik’s newest play “Butterfly Hour” has a limited run from Dec. 4-14 at Theater for the New City at 155 First Avenue in New York. Ticket prices are $15; $12 for seniors and students. Learn more by visiting www.theaterforthenewcity.net.

Patch: In a nutshell, what’s your play about?

Claude Solnik: “Butterfly Hour” is about veterans who return home after sacrificing for the country. You’re in the room with them, their family and friends. The problem is that they get back – and have very little to show for it. One works in retail. Another sells insurance. And a third sells burglar alarms. The skills from the war just don’t transfer. We watch them adjust to civilian life and their relationships. Everything’s the same, but they’re different. One of the three proposes to his girlfriend, who stuck with him through the war. But after fighting, he has trouble helping provide for her at home. The two can barely afford a wedding. She’s a social worker. He’s a veteran. We see how two people who take care of others find themselves in a situation where they have very little – and some trouble taking care of themselves. And their lives have actually separated each of them from the other.

It’s all told as part of an intense, exciting story. There’s a lot of action. I think it’s a play for today when we’re used to movies and TV. We also use a lot of video. I think theater has to adapt and adjust, just as soldiers have to.

Patch: What inspired you to write it?

Claude Solnik: I first wrote Butterfly Hour after meeting someone who fought in the first Gulf War. He talked with me about what it was like not just to be in the war, but to return. The transition to civilian life caught my attention. And I just saw so much irony in people who sacrifice for others – and then have little to show for it when they return.

He was a nice guy. We worked on a first draft, which I rewrote many times since. The play originally focused on the three veterans more than the couple. But after many incarnations, I decided that the play needed to focus on the relationship between the couple as much as between the three friends. I wanted to look at how the couple deals with the soldier’s return. Not as a soap opera. And with a cool story, which I think Butterfly Hour has.

Suffice it to say that it involves love, war, robbery and Jimi Hendrix. When two actors – Lara Logan and Seth Rosenfeld – did a reading, they helped improvise scenes that focused more on the couple – and the woman’s life and emotions. Tom Ashton and Christina Germaine, who play the couple in the Theater for the New City production, also added to the roles. The play evolved into one about how a couple deals with each other after one returns from a war or following any event that can force a wedge between them, as well as three friends who try to adjust to their America.

Patch: How’d you come to pick this theater in NY?

Claude Solnik: Theater for the New City is a great theater that supports new work. They have various theaters in one building – there’s more new theater there, probably, than in most places – and can have several new plays running at once. Theater For the New City Executive Director Crystal Field really picked us. She’s presenting the play and she and TNC have played a huge role in presenting it. It’s their production, their set, space, lights, lighting board, box office and so much more. I see her as a kind of queen of the indie theater scene. She’s an actress and impresario, businesswoman and collaborator.

I think of TNC as an essential venue for playwrights. Theaters like Playwrights Horizons present a very narrow group of authors – including many works that they commission. And they have a subscription base. Crystal Field is open minded, adventurous and willing to take risks and try new things. Many theaters have huge economic pressures. TNC is a non profit that keeps tickets cheap – for audiences. And they provide a venue for new work. We’re very lucky that they’re presenting this play which is a TNC production.

Patch: How did you get started as a playwright?

Claude Solnik: I’ve written just about everything, initially writing poetry and jokes, short things. And I love doing journalism, which is what I do for a living at Long Island Business News. I’ve also been published in a bunch of other publications. At some point, I had to try plays.

Somewhere along the line, I became fascinated with dialogue and the way character is revealed through words. But not just words: voice. I went to Paris after graduating from college – where so many expatriates were doing various things. I became even more aware of English there, where I wrote for various English language publications. I presented plays in art galleries and a church in Paris – and I found a community involved in theater.

...Then I got into NYU’s masters program for dramatic writing. I wrote plays periodically after graduating and had them performed at various venues on Long Island, Philadelphia and New York City. Theater for the New City has presented two other plays that I wrote – Lady from Limerick and The Falls. Both went very well. Crystal Field doesn’t just look for one play. She helps develop playwrights, not just plays, and groups. I’m very grateful that she’s been presenting these plays and hope she continues to do so. She and TNC are great partners and collaborators.

Patch: What’s the best theater advice you’ve ever received?

Claude Solnik: Jeff Bennett, a director I respect a lot, produced and presented one of my works. It went very well. And he presented more as readings that also went very well. But his group, which focuses on the actors (and has a lot of really good actors) kept presenting very famous plays. One day I was complaining to him about how difficult it was for a playwright who wasn’t dead or didn’t just have a big NYC production – to get work done on Long Island. He basically told me to stop asking people to do the work. I needed to be more proactive – as opposed to trying to hand people scripts. Sending scripts in the mail along with credit card offers in other envelopes wasn’t a great strategy. And sending electronic files wasn’t much better. I took it seriously when Jeff said I needed to do more than just focus on a script and the words and began being not just a playwright, but an “artrepreneur,” networking, finding like-mined individuals.

...Daniel Higgins, who’s been doing a great job directing my plays, has said so many memorable things. One thing I get from him is that you need to have faith. In people. Doing a play is like climbing a mountain together. Everybody has the rope. And you all rely on each other. It’s a collective endeavor. Get people who care about doing this. Work well together.

And don’t worry so much. I tend to worry. [Higgins] once said things will work out the way they work out – whether you worry or not. I used to get so worried...I was responsible for so many things. I still have concerns. But I’m learning to have faith. Theater is sort of walking out on a tightrope. But I sort of wait at the end to greet everyone after they cross the rope.

Image: Tom Ashton and Christina Germaine play Matt and Beth in “Butterfly Hour,” at Theater for the New City.

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