A one-woman show by Libby Skala
Music by Steven May
Libby Skala charmed audiences internationally with her acclaimed solo plays Lilia! about her Oscar-nominated actress grandmother Lilia Skala and A Time to Dance about her award-winning great aunt Lisl, a pioneering dancer. She returns to complete the trilogy with FELICITAS, the story of her great aunt Lizi, a tough-love Austrian baby nurse who flees Nazi-occupied Austria to build a new life in America.
Born in pre-world war Vienna under the Hapsburg Empire to a Catholic mother and Jewish father, Lizi grows up under the shadow of two forceful older sisters. Carving out her own path, she devotes herself to keeping babies alive and teaching new mothers strict baby care techniques of the day. As a social worker and nurse at the avant-garde Moll Institute in Vienna between world wars, she fulfills her dream of establishing structure to brand new lives, watching hopeless newborns flourish under her gifted touch, while struggling to balance her personal life with her professional devotion. When the Nazi-regime terminates her work, she flees to America where she is forced to re-invent herself utilizing her talent and training. A celebration of love, discipline and the nobility of a life in service.
Featuring original mandolin music written and performed by Steven May and video designed by Stephen Stevo Arnoczy.