“Worth It!”
Written and Performed by Carla Delaney
Directed and Developed with Jessica Lynn Johnson
Executive produced by Nancy Santiago and Bryan Rasmussen
You may remember Carla’s show, “Voices” which was a revelation in the 2019 solo circuit. Thankfully she is back with another offering for us, just when we need art the most. “Worth It!” is such a clever show – a pandemic anxiety induced karmic trip down the memory lane of a lost and anxious ‘Casey,’ stranded by her broken car after a bad audition tries the ATM of “Future Bank.” After a vain attempt to retrieve her card she runs into “Sheila,” the customer assistance clerk in an otherwise deserted building. Clearly this is not your average bank. Sheila proposes that what Casey is really looking for is not cash or even her lost card, but rather answers to why she herself is so lost. With the help of time travelling VR, holograms and some gloriously retro campy videos, we follow Casey and Sheila as they navigate Casey’s life to find the tipping point to her current state of unhappiness.
This show is an existential narrative of a lonely pandemic addled soul, beautifully, imaginatively and poignantly performed by the multi-talented Carla Delaney. It’s a lesson in self sabotage and ritualized self flagellation. Money….the root of all our E-vile.
What we absorb when we are young, from our parents and our surroundings, forms us, builds us and breaks us. This show is a gorgeous realization of our karmic baggage coming back to taunt us. How we see ourselves is, after all, what we show the world.
“Worth It!” is all about “repatterning your low-value thoughts.” Breaking the habit of settling, consciously reprogramming our minds into bringing the abundance and accepting our grace.
Carla Delaney is a hilarious and wickedly talented performer, but she is also a wonderful writer. The insight she finds in this story, the perfectly balanced storytelling, the clever, funny, inclusive narrative. Some solo shows can be a little overwhelming, so many characters, so many trials and tribulations, it can become a maze. But this show is perfection. Carla flips from character to character live, but a lot of the characters are on video and it sort of separates her a little from the memories and the experiences so Casey, our heroine, can really see them. It’s a really wonderful technique and so compelling. In the end, our Casey finds her power and ends up the show as the lead in a musical extravaganza…it’s absolutely wonderful!!!
I love solo work that fills me with energy and inspiration and this show, “Worth It!” does exactly that. Carla Delaney has created a powerful magical and purposeful work that finds us all at our most vulnerable, isolated, untethered and unsure. It’s a gift really, what she has created here. A sweet and intimate creation, to remind us that we are our own worse critics and that getting out of our own way is sometimes all we ever need to do to succeed. We need warm resonating messages of hope now more than ever and “Worth It!” is most certainly that…in abundance! Bravo!!!!
Thanks also to Jessica Lynn Johnson for her wonderful directing!