Vivienne Garrett
Vivienne Garrett is an Australian-based theatre, film and television actress. She is a theatre director, acting and voice coach and also a qualified yoga instructor and therapist. She was born in Sydney and now lives in Western Australia. Garrett graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1970.
Her best known role was as rebellious teenager Rose Godolfus, an original character in TV serial Number 96, her character was involved in numerous controversial storylines
Early life
Garratt was born in c. 1953, to a father who was a professional squash player, who served in the military during World War II, where he was held as a POW at Changi, she trained in the arts at the National Institute of Dramatic Art and in Canada in Voice and movement.Early career
Garratt a primary school student was chosen to star in a theatrical production of The Little Mermaid where she was spotted by Geoff Harvey the then musical director for TCN-9 and subsequently began performing and singing on children's television talent show Comedy Capers. While still a teenager, her first screen acting role was in The Unloved produced by NLT Productions in 1968. After graduating from NIDA she toured with a Theatre in Education company and had guest roles in police dramas Homicide and Matlock Police.Career
Garrett, at age of 18, was cast in her best known role as rebellious Rose Godolfus, the daughter of deli owner Aldo, in top-rated soap opera Number 96. She was a member of the original cast of Number 96 when it began in March 1972.Number 96 brought sexual situations and nude scenes to Australian television for the first time. Although series star Abigail became famous for being the first woman to appear topless on Australian television, in fact it was Garrett, who was topless in the serial's first episode, who deserves the credit. However the scene was screened only in Sydney. By the time the episode went to air in other localities in the days following, the shot had been cut by censors after complaints from viewers. Garrett remained in the show for five months, breaking her contract and leaving the series over a storyline where Rose was gang raped by a group of bikers in which the script called for her to be actually enjoying it.
After leaving Number 96 she had a guest role in Division 4 and also worked in theatre. She spent three years as a company member of Rex Cramphorn's celebrated Performance Syndicate appearing in productions including The Tempest, Shakuntala and the Ring of Recognition, Muriel, Berenice, and Scapin. They also devised original physical theatre pieces and worked with internationally acclaimed Jerzy Grotowski and his company.
She resumed the role of Rose for a limited number of episodes of Number 96 in 1975, and appeared in a recurring sketch in comedy series The Norman Gunston Show called The Checkout Chicks. This sketch, written by Bill Harding, was a send-up of melodramatic soap operas and set in a supermarket. It featured other former Number 96 actors – Abigail, Candy Raymond, Philippa Baker, Judy Lynne, Anne Louise Lambert, John Paramor and Johnny Lockwood.
In 1976 she travelled to India where she studied yoga, meditation and philosophy at an ashram for 12 months under the guidance of Baba Muktananda in Ganeshpuri. She wrote about the experience in 1977 for the lifestyle magazine Simply Living. Back in Australia, she worked on student films for Australian Film Television and Radio School and continued to act in theatre and on screen.