CHARLESTON

CITY PAPER

June 1, 2005

Lilia of the Field

An actress captures her grandmother's essence in a biographical performance

By Kristin George

THEATRE

Piccolo Spoleto

As a child, Libby Skala remembers her grandmother, Lilia, crawling around on her hands and knees to play with Libby and her sister.  An attentive and interested grandmother, Lilia used every opportunity to form a close relationship with her granddaughters.

Libby admired her grandmother and eagerly awaited each visit, each letter or postcard in the mail, each phone call.  She didn't fully realize her grandmother's talents, though, until she was much older.

A stage star in Max Reinhardt's theatre who earned respect as the first female architect in Austria, Lilia Skala escaped the terrors of Hitler's regime

and emigrated to the United States.  In

New York, she was relegated to working in

a zipper factory--a job she abhorred after

the respectful career she had in her own

country.

Ever persistent, Lilia worked her way out

of the zipper factory and into a successful

acting career.  Most famous for her

Academy Award-nominated performance

opposite Sidney Poitier in Lilies of the

Field, Lilia also starred in Roseland and

Eleanor and Franklin, among many other

film, television, and Broadway productions.

                                                                      The world meets Libby Skala's grandma, Lilia

Piccolo Spoleto's theatre presentation Lilia!

paints the portrait of Lilia's life and also of the personal relationship Skala had with her grandmother.  As grandmother, mentor and friend, Lilia was a heavy influence on Skala's life, particularly when Skala decided to pursue an acting career of her own.

"She said she always felt like the black sheep of the family," Skala says.  "When I developed an interest in acting, she finally had someone she could relate to."

Now, as homage to her late grandmother, Skala celebrates Lilia's extraordinary life in this one-woman biographical production.

"Lilia brought out the dignity in whomever she was with," Skala says.  "She was very opinionated, but she was someone who had experienced so much that it lent credibility to her opinions and depth to her convictions."

Lilia! the play was born out of a characterization Skala did of her grandmother in an improv class.

"The class loved her--they couldn't get enough of her," Skala says.

Encouraged by her teacher and classmates, Skala slowly developed a script based largely on her own memories of her grandmother, with the help of some tapes and journals Lilia had left behind.  As the scenes progressed, the production expanded into a performance that spanned Lilia's 98-year life.

While the opening scenes focus on Lilia's youth in Austria and her film career, the largest part of the play tells the story of Skala's unique relationship with her grandmother.  During those scenes, Skala says, she plays both her grandmother and her younger self.

"Other family members have seen the play and tell me they had a completely different view of her," Skala says.  "She had such a different relationship with all of us."

Lilia! debuted in August 1999 in Kelowna, British Columbia.  It was a hit then, and after nearly six years of being performed in front of sold-out crowds in cities including New York, Seattle, and Toronto, Lilia! is still going strong.  The play has garnered acclaim from countless reviewers and was voted Best Show at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival in 2000 out of a field of some 118 shows.

While Lilia! was Skala's first self-penned show, her resume is long with acting experience.  She has performed frequently in New York City as well as in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C.  She starred in a film version of Romeo and Juliet for the Director's View Film Festival in 2002, appeared in Dogs in the Basement, which premiered at The Montreal Film Festival in 2003, and he played a bridesmaid in Jonathan Glazer's 2004 film Birth, which starred Nicole Kidman.  She was nominated for an Irene Ryan Award for best actress by the American College Theatre Festival for her role in Cinders by Janusz Glowacki.

Skala says she'll continue to perform Lilia! as long as audiences enjoy seeing it.  She's also working on a play about Lilia's sister, Lisl, a dancer who, Libby says, was more prominent in her field than Lilia was in hers.  Lisl was the founder of dance therapy in America.  While this new play is quite different from Lilia!, some of the draw comes from a similar appeal.

"There's something about these old-world European women that really draws people's attention," Skala says.  "Maybe it's that type of sensibility we don't have nowadays.  Or maybe it's their strong opinions on how to feel about love, men, all sorts of things.  Everything today is so relative, but to them everything had an absolute right or wrong.  There's something fascinating about that."

Whether it's the opinionated sensibility or the tender depiction of the relationship between grandmother and granddaughter, audiences continue to be drawn to Lilia!.  This show, while making its Piccolo Spoleto debut, looks to be a touching show for women to enjoy with their grandmother, mother, or best friend.

COPYRIGHT © 2007 LIBBY SKALA

Last Updated: 3/4/2009

LIBBY

SKALA

Performer Writer