Xasha Chua-Huggins - SWEET CHARITY

Written by Neil Simon

Role: Set Designer

Director: Jayde Kirchert

Assistant Director: Alice

Choreographer: Freya List

Musical Director: Martine Wengrow

Set Designer: Xasha Chua-Huggins

Associate Set Designer: Hana Kuhlmann

Costume Designer: Tessa Cleary-Moore

Associate Costume Designer: Sarah Hordern

Lighting Designer: Giovanna Yate Gonzalez

Sound Designer: Ethan Hunter

Cast: VCA Musical Theatre Company of 2021

VCA Musical Theatre Company of 2022

'Sweet Charity' is a story about a girl who wanted to be loved. Charity is a young tax-dancer who hopelessly never gives up. This story takes us through the highs and lows of a turning point in Charity's life. This Set Design portrays Charity’s view of 1960s New York, her inner conflict battling against societal norms yet simultaneously attempting to conform within its structure. This modular design that gives Charity the ability to make changes to her world when she has a sense of confidence, then lose this power when she becomes vulnerable, the set becomes more imposing. (Please scroll down for more design details)

Photography by Drew Echberg

There is a back wall of flats covered in the RGB/CMYK wallpaper, in a pop art Aesthetic. These graphics communicate the different locations present in this story. The rest of the set, to follow is covered in benday dots, this helps to communicate that we are in Charity’s mind and her power over the world through a pop art aesthetic. Benday-dots represented Charity’s perspective of the world as they change depending on how closely you look; creating a world which shape-shifted accordingly.

This set can be divided into a few main parts:

- On the off prompt side we have a .9, high platform that often acts as a ‘seating place’.

-A fixed staircase that leads up to the 1.5m high central platform.

- In front of the central platform we have two staircase trucks. These trucks are arranged and rearranged to transform the space to different locations. See examples below.

- A fixed staircase that leads up to a 2.1m high platform. Beneath this staircase is a little window, which acts as ‘props window’ for specific props to come from, as a food elevator, ticket booth etc. See examples below.

- This double-storey 2.1m high platform is a truck that travels with characters around on stage. On the ground-level, there is an internal revolve with two false revolving-walls, (an archway and a flat wall acting as an elevator/closet door) which reveals and closes the external open faces. These actions help to transform the stage to different locations, mainly as an elevator, closet and entrance. See examples below.

Staircase Trucks