Jarneia is currently playing the role of Catherine of Aragon in the hit musical SIX at the Arts Theatre. She trained at the The Urdang Academy where she graduated in 2017. Her first professional job straight out of college was on the P&O cruise ship, Azura as a Singer/Dancer.
Tell us a bit about Catherine of Aragon’s story.
Catherine of Aragon was a Spanish Queen who married Henry’s brother Arthur first, sadly he passed away and finally after a lot of discussion who she was going to marry next, she ended up with Henry. She reigned as Queen along side Henry for 24 years. She was fearless, powerful, strong, warrior and so resilient. When Henry was away, she ruled the roost. She fought battles and was a strong leader! She was devastated and disgusted when Henry wanted to divorce her for Anne Boleyn creating the Church of England. She stayed under the same roof as them two and his many other ladies in waiting for 7 years before they got an annulment. She did everything in her power to prove he had no right to divorce her, her bravery was admirable!
What kind of research did you do to prepare for the role?
In rehearsals we had a whole week on character building. Our directors Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage would break down our songs and explain all the historical content in it. We also did our own research and brought it into rehearsals. Each queen had a mood board of several words to represent our queen and the information we found. We all did a presentation of everything we found out about our Queens. It was a learning lesson for us all, as we got to learn about each Queen and why they are all so amazing!
