Occupation Actress, writer Spouse Steven May Nationality American Name Libby Skala | Alma mater Oberlin College (BA) Education Oberlin College Years active 1993–present Movies Dogs in the Basement | |
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Relatives Lilia Skala (grandmother) | ||
the acting coach from lilia by libby skala
Libby Skala (born 1967) is an American actress and writer best known for plays about her Austrian-American relatives. She has written three one-woman shows, Lilia!, A Time to Dance and Felicitas, and has performed them across North America and Europe.
Contents
- the acting coach from lilia by libby skala
- Lilia a play by libby skala
- Early life
- Career
- Honors
- References
Lilia a play by libby skala
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. 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.
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. The show Lilia! was developed in Austin's workshop and went on to receive rave reviews internationally. It ran successfully off-Broadway at the Arclight Theatre, produced by Mirror Repertory Company; at The Groundlings Theatre in Los Angeles, presented by Gary Austin; at Pacific Theatre in Vancouver; at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland; in London, sponsored by the Austrian Cultural Forum; in Tbilisi, Georgia; and in Berlin and Dresden, Germany.
Skala's second play A Time to Dance won "Best Solo Performer Award" at the London Fringe Theatre Festival. 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!. The play has toured North America and Europe.
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. She was the nurse in attendance at Skala's home birth.
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. 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.