Libby Skala - Canadian Jewish News Interview

CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS

THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 2001

Jewish-themed plays presented at Fringe Festival

By BEN ROSE

Special to the CJN

[Excerpted from a longer article]

TORONTO -- A non-Jewish grandmother who was an Oscar nominee as Mother Superior in Lilies of the Field and who, with her Jewish husband, narrowly escaped arrest by the Nazis in Vienna, asked her granddaughter to write a part for her.

Libby Skala fulfilled that request, but not until after her grandmother, Lilia Skala, died in Bayshore, Long Island, at age 98. The 90-minute play, titled Lilia!, was presented in the Fringe Festival at the Poor Alex Theatre.

Using simple props and a change of facial expression, Libby played both herself and her grandmother in the one-woman drama.

"My director, Gabriel Barre, felt that my first version was reasonable, but too safe, without risk. He wanted to know what made me tick as well as my grandmother. I wrote five new scenes, one in which I have to give up a treasured sweater. It made me and my grandmother both stronger."

The rewriting came after Libby first presented Lilia! at the Kelowna, B.C., Fringe Festival in 1999 and at the Winnipeg and London, Ont., festivals last year. In fact, the play has been produced more often in Canada than in the United States, where Libby, who lives in New York and spends her holidays in Canada, presented vignettes and scenes from a work in progress.

"At 98, my grandmother was sharp as a tack, sharper than many young people. She used to visit our home near Stamford, Conn., every month and spend an hour each time alone with my sister Emily and me. She encouraged me to become a writer, but my focus right now is on acting."

Libby said her grandmother, a Czech, was an illegitimate child who married a Jewish man. They had to use their wits to escape the Nazis, and at that time, they changed their name to Skala, her grandmother's maiden name.

"At one point, my grandfather, who had seen all kinds of abuses against prisoners in Vienna, said he would head for the border and take a chance, instead of remaining in prison."

Last Updated: 3/4/2009

LIBBY

SKALA

Performer Writer