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From ConnecticutPlus.com Entertainment
Skala appears as both herself and her grandmother Lilia Skala in an 85-minute original opus called “Lilia!” at the old Gilbert and Bennett School Building (at 49 New St., off Route 7), exploring the relationship of two spirits so alike they suffer the ironic antagonism that comes with deep love. Tickets are $15 and space is limited. Reservations and additional information are available by calling (203) 548-9153 or e-mailing liliatheplay@gmail.com. Curtain is 4 p.m. Part of the proceeds go to Paul Farmer’s Partners in Health, a nonprofit that has been working on the ground in Haiti—and 11 other countries—for more than 20 years and carries an ultimate four-star rating for efficiency from the highly-regarded evaluator Charity Navigator. To Libby, Lilia was mentor, role model and, at times, adversary. “Because she was so strong,” Libby recalls, “I never really fought her. There was no winning with her.” Lilia was 98 when she died in 1994. “In our last conversation, she asked me to write a part for her,” Libby recounts. The show has played to sold-out houses in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Toronto and Winnipeg and won critical acclaim in London, Edinburgh, Toronto and Vancouver, the locale of the recently-completed Winter Olympics. In The New York Times, Bruce Weber was laudatory. “One actor,” he wrote, “cloaked in magic. Ms. Skala does a marvelous rendition, in an evocative Middle European patois, of her grandmother’s velveteen old warm charm that sheaths a steel will. An adoring portrait...deliciously poignant...Libby Skala is magnetic in a part that clearly means the world to her.” Writing for CBC Radio in Canada, Robert Enright called Skala’s portrait “absolutely dazzling acting. Her ability to transform herself from her 90-year-old grandmother into herself as a child . . . moving right through being a mature woman is absolutely magical and alchemical. I really can’t believe she does it with no props. She simply does it by shifting her weight and her face almost changes from being that of an old woman to a young girl.” And the Vancouver Sun’s reviewer, Peter Birnie, wrote in 2006: “The younger Skala wraps herself in a colourful scarf and rich Austrian accent to become her grandmother. The effect is electric. as ‘Lilia’ acts with all the grand dame mannerisms of any diva. She swans and swoops and dispenses advice to little Libby with the confidence of someone who is absolutely convinced anyone can do anything if they absolutely put their mind to it.” In an astonishing lifetime odyssey, Lilia Skala broke all the barriers. She was Austria’s first woman architect and a European stage star before the Nazis took everything away. She fled to America as a penniless refugee with virtually no knowledge of the English language. By sheer will, she propelled herself into bit parts in the theater and eventually recognition with featured billing and roles in major theatrical productions. Through the years she appeared on Broadway in “Three Penny Opera” (1965), “Call Me Madam” (1958) and “The Diary of Anne Frank” (1955). On television she was in “Eleanor and Franklin” (1976) and “Ironside” (1967). In film, apart from “Lilies of the Field” where Poitier won an Oscar, she was in “Flashdance” (1983) “Charley” (1968) and “Ship of Fools” (1965). For best supporting actress in 1963 Skala lost out to Margaret Rutherford in “The VIPs” which featured Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. The venue March 21 (Sunday) is the historic Gilbert and Bennett building donated by the manufacturer in1916 as a regional school for Wilton, Ridgefield, Redding and Weston. Now Pat Hegnauer’s Georgetown Community Association is working to preserve the structure as a center for community activities in an area the association is seeking to be designated an Historic District. © Copyright by ConnecticutPlus.com |
