Libby Skala

Libby Skala has charmed audiences internationally with her critically-acclaimed solo shows about her indomitable relatives. "Lilia!" - about her Oscar, Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated grandmother Lilia Skala, "A Time to Dance" - about her great aunt Elizabeth Polk, an award-winning dance therapy pioneer, and "Felicitas" - about her great aunt "Lizi", a tough-love Austrian baby nurse. A Canadian-America actress, Libby is the first of two daughters born to an Austrian-born financial writer and a Canadian textile designer, in Englewood, New Jersey. Her mother gave her the nickname "Libby" after Libby Pockman Hughes, the actress-writer wife of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Hughes. Young Libby Skala was a shy girl who studied piano and excelled in art, but hid to avoid doing acting exercises in her third grade class at Elizabeth Morrow School. After moving to Darien, Connecticut, Libby was reluctantly persuaded by her friend Charlotte Swazey to enroll in The Neighborhood Playhouse's Teen Division in New York, where she loved studying with Fran Anthony and decided to make acting her career. An appreciation for the arts was innate to the Skala family and Lilia Skala firmly mentored her grandchildren. Four out of five went into artistic fields. Libby went on to earn a degree in English Literature with a Theatre Emphasis from Oberlin College, where she was nominated for an American College Theatre Festival Irene Ryan Award for her role in Janusz Glowacki's play "Cinders." Libby's sister Emily Skala Hull studied at the School of American Ballet at Julliard, danced with New York City Ballet under the direction of George Balanchine, later with the Pennsylvania Ballet and then became a ballet teacher. Her cousin Katri Skala founded the UK division of Women in Film, and is a screenwriter, producer and novelist. Her cousin Christopher Skala is a television writer and producer in London. After graduating from Oberlin and attending cattle calls in New York, Libby moved to Seattle where she earned her union cards and studied with Gary Austin, founder of the Groundlings Theatre. In 1995, Gary Austin encouraged Libby to write a one-woman show about her grandmother Lilia Skala, months after Lilia's passing. The show "Lilia!" was developed in his 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; and was performed to sold-out houses in London, Seattle, Toronto and Winnipeg, where it was selected "Best Show" out of 118 shows by University of Manitoba Radio (CJUM) at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival. It received additional raves at Pacific Theatre in Vancouver; at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland; in London, sponsored by the Austrian Cultural Forum; in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia; and in Berlin and Dresden, Germany. Libby's second show "A Time to Dance" won her a "Best Solo Performer Award" at The London Fringe Theatre Festival. She performed it at the award-winning St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival in Canada; at The New York International Fringe Festival; in Vancouver as part of Pacific Theatre's 25th anniversary season; at Fire Exit Theatre in Calgary; and in Berlin and Dresden, Germany. Her third show "Felicitas" was developed with her musician husband Steven May and debuted at The New York International Fringe Festival. With a love for language, Libby appeared with Rosemary Harris, Marian Seldes, Elizabeth Ashley, Jayne Atkinson, Ronald Rand and David Margulies, reading from books published by The Feminist Press at The Jewish Museum of New York. Regionally, she played the role of Viola in "Twelfth Night" at the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival in Canada; and in "Value of Names" directed by Jeffrey Sweet at Theatre J in Washington, DC. She appeared alongside Nicole Kidman in Jonathan Glazer's film Birth (2004), and in the award-winning film festival hit Dogs in the Basement aka _Unscrewed (2003). Libby is an award-recipient of the Pandella Cultural Fund in Switzerland. Her plays "Lilia!", "A Time to Dance" and "Felicitas" continue to take her around the world. In 2008, Libby married Steven May in the San Juan Islands, off the coast of Washington State. The couple met twelve years earlier in Seattle through mutual friends. Steven is musician and plays violin and mandolin in all kinds of musical genres, including in Libby's play "Felicitas". They live in Brooklyn, New York. (2014) Libby is in rehearsal for "Deepest Man" at 3-Legged Dog Art + Technology Center (3LD) in New York.