During an improv class in Seattle, actress Libby Skala got up on stage to tell the class about her grandmother, Lilia Skala. Lilia worked as the first woman architect in Austria but fled to the U.S. during World War II. She didn’t speak any
English, and she couldn’t bring any money with her, so she worked in a factory to make ends meet.
Libby’s grandmother’s story became the basis for a one-woman show that will feature at the MPAC Robinson Theater Sept. 7 at 7:30 pm.
“How indignant she felt,” Libby said. “She was a very high status person that thought a lot about her own intellect and talents, and that she would be forced to work in this factory was the most degrading insult.”
The class, taught by Gary Austin, creator of the Groundlings theater in Los Angeles, improvised a scene about Libby’s grandmother, Lilia. As some students played factory workers and one played the role of the foreman walking up and down, Libby played her grandmother sitting behind the machine, repeating the same monotonous movements.
Fortunately, Lilia did not spend the rest of her life in that factory. She worked hard and became a successful actress in New York City. In 1963, Lilia was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in Lilies of the Field.
Lilia continued to act for the rest of her life, and encouraged granddaughter Libby to do the same. When Libby was cast as a pilgrim in a third grade Thanksgiving show, Lilia came to her aid and coached her in proper emotional delivery of the cute poem she had memorized. Then, when Libby was in junior high, Lilia helped her to attend an acting class at the Neighborhood Playhouse drama program in New York.
“The class ended up being really interesting,” Libby said. “I found that I didn’t have to be what my perception was: really outgoing and very extroverted in order to do the exercises that we were asked to do in the class. I just found that I really loved living vicariously through characters.”
Through Lilia’s coaching, Libby and Lilia developed a close relationship.
“She said that she always felt like she was the black sheep in the family as an actor, and nobody understood her,” Libby said. “She felt that my interest in acting meant that she was no longer alone, so that was what bonded us from that time.”
After that improv class in Seattle, Austin encouraged Libby to create a one-woman show about her grandmother. She wrote it scene by scene with the help of Austin and another acting teacher, Carol Fox Prescott. Little by little, Libby created LiLiA!, a show about her grandmother’s life and their relationship.
After performing the completed piece approximately 250 times, Libby is bringing the show to CMU, where Lilia was a guest artist. Lilia first came to Grand Junction in 1965, two years after her Oscar nomination, to perform in “I Remember Mama” with the theater department of what was then Mesa College. It was her first time working with student actors, and she came back to Mesa College.
in subsequent years to perform in three more plays.
“If you haven’t worked with amateurs, you’re very fearful,” Lilia told the Grand Junction Sentinel in 1973.
“But it was delightful that first time here. I loved the people and the mountains.”
Guest artists offer students at CMU a unique opportunity to work with professionals that have succeeded in the business. The inspirational story of Lilia performed by her granddaughter can provide students with knowledge for the rough waters that await after graduation.
“It’s hard to break into the business,” senior theatre student Emily Lackner said. “Having a family that had two people break into the business, and with all of that experience, and with all of that knowledge about how they made their way is intriguing. There are multiple ways to break into the business, but every way is really hard.”
But the show isn’t just for the theatre department. Students in other disciplines can benefit from hearing the story of Lilia’s triumph.
“Theatre is a mirror to society,” Lackner said. “It’s living art, portraying what’s right there and talking about the problems and great things about the world. I think especially history students psychology students, and sociology students could also benefit from the grandmother’s story about breaking into the United States.”
Although the play tells a pensive and meaningful story, there are plenty of moments of levity.
“Audiences can laugh,” Libby said. “It’s definitely got a lot of humor and fun to it.”
Libby is eager to bring LiLiA! to CMU and see the first place that her grandmother got to work with students learning about acting.
“I know that she was passionate about coaching,” Libby said. “It’s kind of fun for me to think that I’ll be going to the place where she worked with students the same way that she worked with me.”
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