Elizabeth Anne "Libby" Skala (April 20, 1967 – December 1, 2019) was an American actress and writer best known for plays about her Austrian-American relatives. She wrote four one-woman shows: ''Lilia!'', ''A Time to Dance'', ''Felicitas'', and ''Irena Sendler: Rescuing the Rescuer'', which she performed across North America and Europe.

Biography

Early life and education

Elizabeth Anne Skala was the eldest daughter of Mary and Martin Skala, a Canadian textile designer and Austrian-born financial writer for ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in Electronic publishing, electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 ...

''."Obituary: Martin Skala, longtime Darien resident,"
''Darien Times'' (January 22, 2019). Her father's mother was Austrian-American actress

Lilia Skala Lilia Skala (née Sofer; 28 November 1896 – 18 December 1994) was an Austrian and American architect and actress known for her role in the film '' Lilies of the Field'' (1963), for which she received critical acclaim and an Academy Award nomina ...

. Libby Skala was born in

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of Engle ...

, and moved to

Darien, Connecticut Darien ( ) is a coastal town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. With a population of 21,499 and a land area of just under , it is the smallest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Connecticut), Gold Coast. Situated on the Long Island ...

, with her parents and her younger sister Emily when she was nine. After graduating from

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

(also her father's alma mater) with a degree in English Literature/Theatre Emphasis, and attending

cattle call An audition is a sample performance by an actor, singer, musician, dancer or other performer. It typically involves the performer displaying their talent through a previously memorized and rehearsed solo piece or by performing a work or piece giv ...

s in New York, Skala moved to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

where she earned her union cards and studied with

Gary Austin Gary Austin (born Gary Moore; October 18, 1941 – April 1, 2017) was an American improvisational theatre teacher, writer, and director who founded The Groundlings theatre company in 1974. Early life Austin grew up in the Nazarene Church and in ...

, founder of the improvisational theatre company

The Groundlings The Groundlings is an American improvisational and sketch comedy troupe and school based in Los Angeles, California. The troupe was formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by Viola Spolin, whose improv techniques we ...

Career

In 1995, months after her grandmother

's death, Gary Austin encouraged Skala to write a one-woman show about her

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

-nominated actress grandmother. The show ''Lilia!'' was developed in Austin's workshop and went on to receive rave reviews internationally. It ran successfully

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

at the Arclight Theatre, produced by Mirror Repertory Company; at

Theatre in Los Angeles (presented by Gary Austin); at Pacific Theatre in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

; at the

Edinburgh Fringe Festival The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

in Scotland; in London, sponsored by the Austrian Cultural Forum; in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

, Georgia; and in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, 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 Dance/movement therapy (DMT) in USA and Australia or dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) in the UK is the psychotherapeutic use of movement and dance to support intellectual, emotional, and motor functions of the body. As a modality of the cre ...

, and is based on a series of interviews recorded while Skala was researching ''Lilia!''. The play toured North America and Europe. Libby Skala collaborated with her husband, musician Steven May, to create her third show, ''Felicitas'', which was premiered at the

New York International Fringe Festival The New York International Fringe Festival, or FringeNYC, was a fringe theater festival and one of the largest multi-arts events in North America. It took place over the course of a few weeks in October, spread on more than 20 stages across se ...

in 2014. May created the

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

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 migrated from

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

to join her sisters Lilia and Lisl in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. She was the nurse in attendance at Skala's

home birth A home birth is a birth that takes place in a residence rather than in a hospital or a birthing center. They may be attended by a midwife, or lay attendant with experience in managing home births. Home birth was, until the advent of modern medi ...

. Libby Skala's show, '' Irena Sendler: Rescuing the Rescuer'', premiered at the London Fringe Theatre Festival in 2017.

Personal life and death

Skala married musician Steven May in 2008. Libby Skala died on December 1, 2019, at the age of 52."In Memorium,"
''SAG-AFTRA'' magazine (Spring 2020).

Honors

In 2013, the

Sunnyside Gardens Sunnyside Gardens is a community within Sunnyside, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. The area was the first development in the United States patterned after the ideas of the garden city movement initiated in England in the ...

Historical Alliance presented ''Lilia!'' in conjunction with the unveiling of a

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

Plaque on the former home of Skala's grandmother

, Stage and Screen Actor, for which

Sidney Poitier Sidney Poitier ( ; February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was a Bahamian-American actor, film director, activist, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Among his ot ...

wrote a tribute. A month earlier, Skala performed ''A Time to Dance'' for

Historical Alliance in honor of a

Plaque unveiling at the home of her great-aunt,

pioneer Elizabeth "Lisl" Polk.

Work

Theatre

* 1999 ''Lilia!'' * 2007 ''A Time to Dance'' * 2014 ''Felicitas'' * 2017 ''

Irena Sendler Irena Stanisława Sendler (; 15 February 1910 – 12 May 2008), operating under the ''nom de guerre'' Jolanta, was a Polish humanitarian, social worker, and nurse who served in the Polish Underground Resistance during World War II in Ge ...

: Rescuing the Rescuer''

Filmography

References

External links

* * * Skala, Libby
"IRENA SENDLER: RESCUING THE RESCUER at Freight & Salvage, Sat, 10/7: A solo show about the social worker who rescued 2,500 Jewish children during WWII and the Kansas students who introduced her to the world,"
''Patch (Berkeley, CA)'' (Sep 26, 2017). {{DEFAULTSORT:Skala, Libby American women dramatists and playwrights American people of Canadian descent American people of Austrian-Jewish descent American stage actresses Writers from Englewood, New Jersey Actresses from Englewood, New Jersey 1967 births 2019 deaths 21st-century American women