Submitted by Lopez Center, written by of Libby Skala

See “A Memoir, Staged: Lilia!,” actress Libby Skala’s one-woman show about her famous grandmother, at Lopez Center on Friday, Sept. 29 at 7: 30 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for youth, available at the door or at lopezcenter.org.

“Darling, your nose is much too large for your face. Pinch the nose. That way it grows narrow.” Those were the first words that came to mind when I sat down to write a play about my Austrian grandmother.

The idea came about in Gary Austin’s Seattle improvisation workshop. My grandmother had recently passed away and was fresh in memory. During an exercise, I described her as a New York zipper factory worker, a refugee who’d abandoned wealth and social standing as Austria’s first licensed female architect to flee the Nazis. Austin cast me in a factory scene.

When he later found out my grandmother was Lilia Skala, who became an Oscar-nominated actress for one of his favorite films: Lilies of the Field, he insisted I write a one-woman show about her.

“But, how do you encapsulate 98 years of a person’s life into an hour and a half? What would the dramatic arc be?” I asked.

“Never mind. Go home and write down every interaction you ever had with her. You’ll discover as you go.”

I felt the earth shift. I’d waited for this all my life. The truth is, I derived infinite pleasure from quoting my imperious grandmother to anyone who’d listen.

My admiration for her was boundless. Well into her 80s, she was taking jazz dance classes and learning to ride a horse for the Western film Heartland. When I was in high school, she appeared in Flashdance, to my classmates wonderment.

What awed me the most was how she’d survived the darkest of times, lost everything and yet pulled through to become more resilient and successful than ever, working well into her 90s, after struggling for 25 years.

Her life gave me hope. All things are possible.

Write, I obediently did. Four years later, the result was Lilia!, in which I play my mentoring grandmother and myself in dialogue.

Essentially, it’s a humorous and touching family relationship piece about two very different generations from different countries who, despite some antagonism, share a love for the same profession and for each other.

Through performing the show, I’ve come to understand things she was trying to teach me, that I wasn’t ready to grasp at the time.

For example, there’s a scene in which she demands my favorite sweater. When I wrote it, I thought she was being inexplicably mean, which was so unlike her. I’ve since realized the sweater was oversized, drab and unflattering. She wanted me to be beautiful!

In another scene, she advises me not to marry for love, but rather to marry someone with similar background, values, education, who makes a decent living. That seemed antiquated. She married based on a handwriting analysis. Now I see she meant love is fine, but practical factors will keep you going in the long run.

The 7:30 p.m., Friday, Sept., 29, at the Lopez Center will mark the 286th performance of “Lilia!” I’m particularly delighted to bring it to Lopez since my husband (who I married for practical reasons as well as for love) and I were married in the San Juans. My grandmother Lilia wasn’t around then, but I know she would have loved it here, and she would have loved him.

Skala is an playwright, actor and producer based in Brooklyn, New York, with four one-woman shows: “Lilia!,” “A Time to Dance” and “Felicitas,” about notable family members, and “Irena Sendler: Rescuing the Rescuer.” To learn more about Skala, visit www.LibbySkala.com.