PRINCIPIA PURPOSE

Summer 2004

Alumni Profile

Actress/playwright carves out her own niche

As a Principia student who

dreamed of becoming an actress,

Libby Skala longed for a part in the

Upper School musical production. 

But each year when it came time for

auditions, she was so nervous she

would lose her singing voice.

       "I wanted it so much and I set

the stakes so high that I scared

myself out of it," she recalls -- though

she did finally make it into the chorus

her senior year.                                                                                      Young Libby with grandmother

                                                                                                           Lilia Skala (left) and Libby Skala   

       This spring, many years later,                                                         today (above right)

Libby stepped onto the Ridgway Audi-                                                                     

torium stage once again, this time as a professional actress and the star of her own own-woman show, Lilia!  In a special performance at the St. Louis campus, Libby displayed the talent, passion, and poise that have won her critical acclaim as the show has toured around the U.S. and abroad.

       The play is a tribute to her grandmother, stage and screen actress Lilia Skala. In a series of remembered conversations, Libby alternates between playing herself growing up and the remarkable grandmother who provided a rare education as she reminisced about the events of her life.

       Viennese-born Lilia was Austria's first female architect who then became a leading stage actress in Max Reinhardt's theater. When Hitler invaded her country, she was forced to flee to the United States.

       Drudging in menial jobs by day and studying English by night, Lilia - then in her 40s - clung to the hope that she would one day resume her acting career. She often reminded herself of Mary Baker Eddy's statement "The talents God gives, we must improve."

       As proof that "with God, all things are possible," she was cast in her first Broadway show just two years after arriving in the U.S. and went on to play a variety of parts on stage, radio, and TV as well as in movies.

       She is best known for her starring role as the chapel-building mother superior opposite Sidney Poitier in the 1963 classic movie Lilies of the Field. That performance earned her an Oscar nomination.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Each time I do it, I'm re-hearing all the lessons

my grandmother was trying to teach me."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

       When Libby was taking her own first steps as an actress, grandmother Lilia was a tough but inspiring mentor, coaching her on the development of her roles and daring her to "shoot for the stars - our capacities are limitless."

       Libby took that advice to heart and has carved out a unique niche in theater. Tired of working as a stand-in and going to cattle calls where she was one out of hundreds auditioning for a part, she began developing the play about her relationship with her grandmother in 1996.

       From an improvisation exercise in an acting class, it grew into a 70-minute memoir with each humorous, poignant, or inspiring scene flowing into the next. As Libby transforms back and forth between her tentative younger self and her indomitable grandmother, complete with Viennese accent, it is easy to believe that there are two people onstage.

       Lilia! is a financial as well as critical success, and Libby has performed it over 120 times in a variety of venues.

       "Each time I do it, it's fresh, because I'm re-hearing all the lessons my grandmother was trying to teach me," she says. "She would tell me all these stories of things she overcame through Christian Science in order to be an actress. I could see that God was the first thing in her life, and I really loved that."

       When Libby's not involved with theater, she enjoys exploring the visual arts, including interior design and architecture. "I love artistic expression in whatever form it may come," she notes. She is also a Reader for her branch church in New York City.

       Moviegoers can catch a glimpse of Libby in her newest role as a bridesmaid in Birth, which stars Nicole Kidman.

       Upcoming projects include an idea for a new show Libby wants to write.

       "But I like acting more," she admits with a twinkle. "I really just write so I have reason to get onstage."                    

- Nancy Mullen

COPYRIGHT © 2007 LIBBY SKALA

Last Updated: 3/4/2009

LIBBY

SKALA

Performer Writer