Libby Skala - Soul of the American Actor Interview

New York, NY

Spring 2004

Libby Skala

Interviewed by Ronald Rand

LIBBY SKALA - Will be performing her acclaimed one-woman play,“Lilia!”

(about the renowned actress, Lilia Skala (her grandmother)) at The Players in

New York City on May 25th. Ms. Skala has performed “Lilia!” to sold-out houses

in Los Angeles, New York (most recently at the New York Solo Play Festival and

The Episcopal Actors Guild), Seattle, Toronto and Winnipeg (where it was

selected "Best Show" out of 118 shows at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival 2000).

“Lilia!” has also been performed at the Cape Cod Theatre Project, and the

Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Her other New York theater includes new works at

Solo Arts Group and The Drama League. Regionally, she appeared in Seattle

at The Annex Theatre, New City Theatre, and at the Seattle Theatre Project;

in Washington, D.C. she appeared at Theatre J in Jeffrey Sweet's “Value of

Names”; and in Los Angeles at The Stopgap Theatre. She recently starred in a

film version of “Romeo and Juliet” for the Director's View Film Festival, and has

roles in “Dogs in the Basement,” and in Jonathan Glazer’s “Birth” starring Nicole

Kidman. Ms. Skala was nominated for an Irene Ryan Award as Best Actress by

the American College Theatre Festival for her role in “Cinders.” She is a

member of the Dramatists Guild.

What initially happened that made you begin writing “Lilia!”

After my grandmother passed away, I was living in Seattle and I took an improvisation workshop taught by Gary Austin. In it, Gary asked each of us to talk for five minutes about a real or fictitious person who we found to be “interesting, compelling or fascinating.” I spoke about my grandmother and described her as an immigrant who had difficulty adjusting from the high profile life of being the first female architect in Austria to being a penniless factory worker in America. He immediately put me into a scene in which I played her working in a New York zipper factory after her arrival as a refugee in 1939.

After class, another student mentioned to Gary that my grandmother was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in “Lilies of the Field”. When he heard that, he told me that I had to write a one-woman show about her life. Gary has this profound sincerity, which made me listen and trust him. It was really his encouragement and inspiration that prompted me to begin writing. But I had no idea how to go about it. So he said, “Go home and write down everything she ever said to you.” So every night before I went to bed, I would listen for one sentence. And one sentence would lead to three pages — certain stories my grandmother had told me, and certain experiences would come back to me. Then in class I would act them out in improvisations. That’s how the play was born. It stepped up to a work-in-progress as I’d put on segments of it in presentations with Artistic New Directions, which Gary directed.

And you’ve done over a hundred performances now.

Somewhere closer to 130, and I have another one coming up on May 25th at The Players.

Naturally it’s always a challenge doing a play so many times and keeping it fresh.

Well, I love all of the stories in the show, and I love sharing them. And, I’m always conscious of the fact that there are members of the audience who are hearing them for the first time. So, it’s natural to experience the stories for the first time along with the audience. I love thinking of the word “rehearsing” as “re-hearing”. If I ever find myself on auto-pilot, I quickly do something to surprise myself — by playing more with sound, or movement, or taking breaths in unexpected places. But the foundation of my inspiration comes from the new and deeper insights I keep getting of my grandmother and of acting itself.

You also recently performed “Lilia!” at your high school in St. Louis. Did that experience mean something extra special to you?

It did, on so many levels. It struck a very deep chord. My high school days were not the highlight of my life. I was very timid and shy. I froze up during auditions, and wasn’t cast, despite my pleading with the drama teacher. So when that same drama teacher invited me back to perform my show with mandatory attendance for all 700 students and no homework assigned that evening, I felt so honored. And I received a spontaneous standing ovation!

In the play, you mention your grandmother’s faith. This was obviously something very important to her.

Very much so. And she was very open about it. She would talk about her religion on the radio and in television interviews. Everything good in her life she attributed to God. She felt very strongly that everyone’s talents come from God – whatever they may be. The bus driver’s “talent of courtesy.” The garbage man’s “talent of reliability.” The “actor’s talent to take a character off of the page and breathe life into it.” She was very insistent about this. Everything she did in her profession proceeded from her sense of utilizing what God gave her. Once a young starlet came up to her and said: “Oh Ms. Skala, you are so talented!” And she replied: “Yes I am, thank God!” In a way her reply could have been perceived as arrogant, but because she felt the talent came from a universal source much larger than herself, she wasn’t afraid of boldly acknowledging it to other people. Faith, to her, was something practical that you carry around in your heart. I also feel strongly about this.

One time, I was in rehearsal for a show, and the director could see that I was ‘self-conscious’. I wasn’t going ‘all the way’ with the character. And she said: “Come hell or high water, by the time we’re finished with these rehearsals, you will learn to leave your ego at the door!” I’m still learning that lesson. I’m learning that the talent doesn’t originate with me. And as I become more conscious of the infinite nature of the source - something much greater than myself – I become capable of giving more and more, because it’s not personal. It’s not about my personal ego.

You have also performed the lead role in “Cinders.”

It was during my senior year at Oberlin College and one of the most challenging experiences I’ve had as an actor. Even so, the play was chosen for the American College Theatre Festival, and I was nominated for an Irene Ryan Award. The playwright obviously wrote the play as a political statement about life in an Eastern Block country. However the director, who happened to be a feminist, was intent on turning the play into a feminist statement. Rather than having my character tragically commit suicide at the end of the play, as the playwright intended, she had me fake my death and then rise to show “a woman rising from the ashes.” I was baffled: How could she change the meaning of what the writer intended! I said to my grandmother, “The play is a tragedy, I can’t do what she wants me to do!” And Lilia said: “Yes you can. She is the director. It’s your job to do what she says and make it work.” And she was right. But I refused. And because I only went along half-heartedly with the director’s concept, the audience was left with an inconsistent performance.

What I’ve learned since then from working with Carol Fox Prescott, is that when things don’t seem to make sense either in rehearsal or in performance, you have to pretend, play with the ideas, have a good time with it – like a child pretending anything within the realm of imagination. Eventually, on some visceral level you discover how it does make sense, and new vistas open up. Or something else will happen. If you believe in it enough, the audience will too. If I had pretended “Cinders” was a feminist play, and had fun with that, the audience would have had a richer and more satisfying experience.

What continues to make performing “Lilia!” so special for you?

For the past year and a half, I have been co-directing the show with someone who has a like vision for this work. Together, we have seen the importance of focusing on this show exclusively at this time in my career. This is giving me the deepest insights I have ever experienced into my grandmother, myself and the art of acting.

I remember my grandmother saying to me: “Stop going about your career the way the world tells you to do it. You have your own path that God will show you.” But I would say to her, “So and so says this will happen if I send out hundreds of photos, and this agent or casting director says to do it this way!” And she would say: “Do you see what I did? Use all of your God-given talents. You have a talent for writing, so write!”

Since this show came along – as a gift – it’s finally beginning to dawn on me what she actually meant. We all truly do have unique gifts and talents that no one else possesses. I could go to a thousand cattle call auditions and be a drop in the bucket, but no one else could write and perform this particular play from the perspective of Lilia’s granddaughter.

These unique gifts are actually already in the hands of each one of us. We just have to have the courage to recognize it. She was telling me to develop all my talents, all the gifts that were already mine. It has become a spiritual journey not unlike my grandmother’s.•

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Last Updated: 3/4/2009

LIBBY

SKALA

Performer Writer