Chichester graduate makes UK debut in stage phenomenon Hamilton

Straight after graduating, US-born Chasity had to go back to Germany where she grew up.

“I studied in Chichester for three years from 2010-2013 and I absolutely loved it. I still have loads of friends from around that time and I just had a really great time. I grew up in Germany and I knew that I wanted to study musical theatre but I didn't want to do it in Germany, and the USA, where I was born, felt so far away so I decided to look at what options there were in England, and Chichester seemed to be one of the most financially doable.

“It was great. It gave me a lot of confidence but coming out of uni I lost a lot of that confidence! You don't understand what the industry will be like until you are actually in it. You can't really imagine it when you are at uni and then once you are there it is really different. It's a shock to the system. You build up your confidence and you've got your degree and you graduate but then because my visa ran out, I had to go back to Germany where I was working in Starbucks for six months until I got my first job.”

All of which means that she's now enjoying a UK audience for the first time as Lin-Manuel Miranda’s multi award-winning cultural phenomenon Hamilton makes its debut UK tour including a six-week season at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton from March 18-April 26.

The show is famously the story of America’s Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant from the West Indies who became George Washington’s right-hand man during the Revolutionary War and helped shape the very foundations of the America we know today. With a score blending hip-hop, jazz, blues, rap, R&B and Broadway, it’s the story of America then, as told by America now.

Chasity is playing Angelica Schuyler – a role somewhat complicated by the fact that she spent a year in the German language version of Hamilton: “Itwas the first German translation ever. It was wild. It took them three years to do it with them constantly having to send Lin drafts of the translation for him to sign off.

“But really there are three versions. There is the English version and there is the German version and there is also the English version of what the German version is. You can't just translate it word for word. It has to be something else to catch the double entendres and the rhymes.

“We did a year in Germany before it closed and I think the German version was outstanding. We also did an EP. We wanted to make sure that it was captured so that it didn't get lost but I do think perhaps a lot of decisions were made too quickly. They decided to close after a year but took the decision after only a couple of months. If they had given it longer, they would have realised it needed more time. I don't think it got the chance to develop. Closing it was quite sad, heartbreaking really.”

Inevitably it's quite a feat now to do it in English: “I did it for a year in German so that now switching to the English actually feels more foreign than doing the German. We have been doing the English version for five to six weeks now and I'm still having to really concentrate on the words. Everything feels so familiar apart from the words! I just feel that if I get into it too much I'm afraid that I'm very naturally going to go into the other language!

“But I'm really enjoying the ease with which I can put myself into the character. There's a lot of me – intelligence and rebellion and family orientation and political interest. I'm also big sister. She is the matriarch of the family and a lot of the decisions that she makes are decisions that I would make so really the character just feels very natural.”