Deborah Garrett (Co-founder, Claire and alternate Minnie & Rosie)
Deborah's dream of performing came at age three, when she saw Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins. Her stage career didn't begin however until she was a junior in High School, where she was truly "in the right place at the right time" as a last-minute replacement in Annie Get Your Gun as one of Annie's sisters.
Before that time, Deborah was heard only in the band and orchestra, where she was first chair clarinet for the Pasadena High School Band her junior and senior years. Graduating as Saludatorian, Deborah left sunny Southern California for New England, where she attended Smith College and graduated cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. degree in Psychology (even though she spent most of her time in the Music department!)
After college, she was a Nanny (completing that part of her Mary Poppins dream) while continuing her vocal and performance studies. Eventually, she returned to California, first to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she sang in regional opera companies, and finally, back full-circle to Southern California.
She has performed locally with Orange County Opera, Long Beach Playhouse, Downey Civic Light Opera, Newport Theatre Arts Center, Vanguard Theatre, and The Gourmet Detective murder mystery dinner theatre, as well a little bit of film and video work. Her last major stage appearance was as Sister Margaretta (the "nice" nun!) in Downey Civic Light Opera's "The Sound of Music."
Deborah's current endeavor is as founder and principle performer of Living Vibrant Lives Inc and Flashback Music Memories, where she and her team bring back memories through music and history. The two sides of her business cover both Vintage Entertainment and quality weekly Music & Activities Programs for Senior residents in Assisted Living.
As performer in her "everyday life," Deborah specializes in songs from the 1920s-1960s. Every few years, she takes time off her regular routine to tour Europe (and Eastern Europe) with the Smith College Alumnae Chorus. She has sung in Sicily, the Baltic States, St. Petersburg and Slovenia as soprano soloist in Mozart's Requiem, Beethoven's Mass in C and Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass.
For The Girls Next Door, she's learned and performed all three roles over the past 20 years, arranged music, created brochures & marketing materials, collaborated on writing scripts, written & published our newsletters, taken care of correspondence & contracts, and created this website. She HAS been a busy little bee indeed!
