Libby Skala - Back Stage Interview 2

Back Stage

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2003

Historical obscurities: fresh fodder

for theatrical trailblazing

In Focus Leonard Jacobs.

Excerpted from a longer article:

The Personal Approach

Actress Libby Skala comes to her piece, "LiLiA!," from a familial viewpoint. It is the life story of Lilia Skala, her grandmother, nominated for an Oscar for playing the Mother Superior in the classic 1963 film "Lilies of the Field."

Born in Vienna, Skala did much more than get an Oscar nod. She was the first female architect in Austria. Then she was a stage star under the aegis of the legendary director Max Reinhardt. Then, as Hitler rose to power, she was a refugee who arrived in New York, had to learn English, and worked in a zipper factory before her show business career could resume.

"I always felt my grandmother was the most talented actor I've ever seen, and although she had fans who loved her work and followed her, she herself felt she was never given the kind of parts she could have played because of her age when she came to America and because she had an Austrian accent."

Still, says the younger Skala, what the elder Skala passed down to her makes her not only worth remembering, but worth homaging in a one-woman show that traces her rise, over a 25-year period, from the bleak confines of that zipper factory to an Oscar nomination and subsequent honors.

"I was in an improv class in Seattle, and the teacher asked us to talk about something historical relating to ourselves. Of course, I spoke about my grandmother, and people kept saying I have to write a show about her. As I worked, it became my way of saying that here was this woman who was so talented, who inspired me so much, that I would love it if she could inspire others--to have others know her as 1 did. I remember she said to me at one point, 'Write a part for me because Hollywood writers don't know what to do with an old woman with an accent.'"

Skala, who died in 1994 at 98, is recreated solidly through her granddaughter's spot-on impersonation. Having premiered the show in the Midtown International Theatre Festival last summer, the piece extended, then began a third run that ended Dec. 9. As she prepares to possibly tour the show or mount it again, Skala has become increasingly aware that reintroducing an historical character, even one as dear to her as her grandmother, poses challenges in terms of audience expectations.

"On the one hand, I've had people say, 'I was expecting to get her full career, where she worked with Zsa Zsa Gabor and Vivien Leigh, and I'm disappointed I didn't get that,' while other people say they like hearing about my relationship with her more than hearing about her career," Skala says. "But playwrights cannot please every audience member. For the most part, a lot of women say this show is important not just because of who Lilia Skala was, but because she was a woman who, in her mid-40s--an age then considered to be over the hill--came to a new country, built a career, and was acknowledged for it. I think it tells the audience that nothing is impossible if you stick to it, if you are determined enough, and if you trust enough not to give up. And that you will be remembered."

Last Updated: 3/4/2009

LIBBY

SKALA

Performer Writer