Libby Skala

Libby Skala

Libby Skala in 2008
Born Elizabeth Anne Skala
Englewood, New Jersey, US
Occupation Actress, writer
Nationality American
Alma mater Oberlin College (BA)
Years active 1993–present
Spouse Steven May
Relatives Lilia Skala (grandmother)
Website
Official website

Libby Skala is an American actress and writer best known for plays about her Austrian-American relatives.[1][2][3][4] She has written three one-woman shows, Lilia!, A Time to Dance and Felicitas, and has performed them across North America and Europe.

Early life

Skala is the eldest daughter of Mary and Martin Skala, a Canadian textile designer and Austrian-born financial writer for The Christian Science Monitor. She was born in Englewood, New Jersey and moved to Darien, Connecticut with her family when she was nine.[5][6][7][8] After graduating from Oberlin College with a degree in English Literature/Theatre Emphasis and attending cattle calls in New York, Skala moved to Seattle where she earned her union cards and studied with Gary Austin, founder of the improvisational theatre company, The Groundlings.[9][10]

Career

In 1995, Gary Austin encouraged Skala to write a one-woman show about her Academy Award-nominated actress grandmother Lilia Skala, months after her grandmother's passing.[11] The show Lilia! was developed in Austin's workshop and went on to receive rave reviews internationally.[12][13][14][15][16][17] It ran successfully off-Broadway at the Arclight Theatre, produced by Mirror Repertory Company;[18] at The Groundlings Theatre in Los Angeles, presented by Gary Austin;[19] at Pacific Theatre in Vancouver;[20] at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland;[21] in London, sponsored by the Austrian Cultural Forum;[22] in Tbilisi, Georgia; and in Berlin and Dresden, Germany.[23]

Skala's second play A Time to Dance won "Best Solo Performer Award" at the London Fringe Theatre Festival.[24] It portrays the story of Skala's great aunt Elizabeth "Lisl" Polk, a pioneer of dance therapy, and is based on a series of interviews recorded while Skala was researching Lilia!.[25] The play has toured North America and Europe.[26][27][28]

Skala collaborated with her husband, musician Steven May to create her third show Felicitas, which premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2014. May created the mandolin music score which he performs live on stage to underscore Skala's story of her great-aunt Felicitas Sofer, a highly trained professional baby nurse who immigrated from Vienna, Austria to join her sisters Lilia and Lisl in America.[29] She was the nurse in attendance at Skala's home birth.[30]

Honors

In 2013, Sunnyside Gardens Historical Alliance presented Lilia! in conjunction with the unveiling of a National Register of Historic Places Plaque on the former home of Skala's grandmother Lilia Skala, Stage and Screen Actor, for which Sidney Poitier wrote a tribute.[31] A month earlier, Skala performed A Time to Dance for Sunnyside Gardens Historical Alliance in honor of a National Register of Historical Places Plaque unveiling on the home of her great aunt Elizabeth "Lisl" Polk, Dance Therapy Pioneer.[32]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
2000 Smile Cindy Film
2003 Unscrewed Mary's Friend Film
2004 Birth Bridesmaid Film

References

  1. ↑ "Playwright's focus on family". Calgary Herald. 22 September 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  2. ↑ "Libby Skala encapsulates 100 years of life, love, dance". Downtown Express. 21 August 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  3. ↑ "Libby Skala, actor, writer, "Lilia"". Actorslife.com. 6 October 2012. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  4. ↑ "FELICITAS". NYTheatreNow.com. 14 August 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  5. ↑ "Libby Skala Biography". imdb.com. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  6. ↑ "Theatrical tribute to a special grandmother". TheVillager.com. 17 August 2005. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  7. ↑ "Skala returns to Lapham for 'Lilia!'". New Canaan Advertiser. 16 October 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  8. ↑ "Skala to tell story of aunt in 'Felicitas'". Darien News. 8 November 2013. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  9. ↑ "Conversing with Grandmother Beloved by Critics". Oberlin Alumni Magazine. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  10. ↑ "Libby Skala on The 48th St. Exercise". Austinhere.wordpress.com. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  11. ↑ "Arts Incubator Series: Actress Libby Skala Inspires Students". Polk.edu. 19 March 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  12. ↑ "CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; Enter One Actor, Cloaked in Magic". The New York Times. 31 July 2003. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  13. ↑ "Tribute to grandmother a lovely, warm memory". The Vancouver Sun. 26 September 2006. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  14. ↑ "Lilia – refugee from the Nazis, Oscar nominee, and grandmother comes to London (as a play)". Espiritualidadcafe.wordpress.com. 31 October 2010. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  15. ↑ "Ravishing Revivals". Gay City News. 1 September 2005. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  16. ↑ "Lilia!: A review by Bernie Whelan". ExtraExtra. October 2010. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  17. ↑ "Shaw TV Studio 4 Fanny Kiefer Interviews Libby Skala and Lilia! Trailer". YouTube. 26 November 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  18. ↑ "The Mirror Repertory Company begins repertory season at the Arclight". New York Theatre Guide. 1 April 2005. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  19. ↑ "Stage Raw: Time Stands Still". LA Weekly. 13 February 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  20. ↑ "Tribute to grandmother a lovely, warm memory". The Vancouver Sun. 26 September 2006. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  21. ↑ "Lilia! by Libby Skala ****". The Scotsman. 3 July 2001. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  22. ↑ "Theatre and dance Libby Skala: LiLiA!". Austrian Cultural Forum London. October 2010. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  23. ↑ "Interview with Libby Skala" (PDF). StLawrenceShakespeare.ca. May 2012. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  24. ↑ "A Time to Dance – Fringe Festival". Talk Entertainment. 16 August 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  25. ↑ "'Time to Dance' looks at Polk's therapy". The Post and Courier. 31 May 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  26. ↑ "A Therapist Who Fled the Nazis, and Other Characters in Motion". The New York Times. 17 August 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  27. ↑ "A Time to Dance Comes to the NY Int'l Fringe Festival". Broadway World. 24 August 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  28. ↑ "In A Time to Dance, Libby Skala glows in her poignant portrayal of a zany great aunt". Charleston City Paper. 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  29. ↑ "Theater Review (NYC Fringe): 'Felicitas' by Libby Skala". BlogCritics. 17 August 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  30. ↑ "FringeNYC Review: Felicitas". Stagebuddy.com. 25 August 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  31. ↑ "From zipper factory to Academy Awards". Times Ledger. 22 October 2013. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  32. ↑ "2 National Register Plaques for 2 Historic Sisters". SunnysideGardens.us. 27 October 2013. Retrieved 29 November 2014.

External links

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