NORTH Country Theatre, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, draws on a handful of professional actors, many of whom return again and again to take part in creating and touring new plays to community venues throughout the region.

One of these is Vivienne Garnett, who made her professional debut with the company in 2005 after graduating from Mountview Theatre School in London.

Raised on a farm at Osmotherley, she knew from the age of seven that acting was what she wanted to do. Her primary school head spotted and encouraged her precocious talent, as did teachers at secondary school and sixth form college in Northallerton.

Now 35, she has appeared in nine productions with NCT and takes on the mantle of director for the first time this autumn after working as assistant director to Nobby Dimon on Twelfth Night, currently touring country house venues.

The play is a stage adaptation of The Wish House, a psychic story of possessive love by Rudyard Kipling, that will be marked by the comic twists that are his stock-in-trade.

“It is a spooky story, and the first time I read it I was almost moved to tears," said Vivienne.

"Nobby and I can see ways of drawing fun out of it, undercutting the drama with comedy, as there is quite a serious truth behind the story.

"It gave me the shivers, and is a bit of a departure for NCT. Nobby plans to write the script before rehearsals start in September.”

Dimon’s usual way of working is to envisage set and props before thrashing out ideas and dialogue with the cast he has assembled.

It was only when she returned to NCT a second time that Vivienne fully appreciated this approach. By then, still a comparative newcomer to the business, she had worked with more conventional directors.

“There is usually a script which actors stand and deliver,” she said. “Nobby’s way is so much more creative. Rehearsals are such fun.”

Her favourite play was the swashbuckling Ruritanian romance The Prisoner of Zenda which NCT toured twice in 2008.

She harboured no ambitions to direct, and was uncertain when invited by Nobby to take on that post for The Wish House.

“But I felt it was an honour,” she said. “Having worked with him over many years I decided he must think I have potential and that I should try to fulfil his trust.”

She has moved back from London to North Yorkshire and rents a flat in Richmond. The move brings her closer to her father, Ray Garnett, who retired last year aged 69 after working as farm manager for the Bell family at Arncliffe for 30 years and latterly on an estate at Felixkirk.

“He always comes to see the play I’m in and tells me what he thinks,” she said. “He doesn’t hold back.”

Her mother died when Vivienne was studying for a post-graduate degree in English literature and theatre studies at Lancaster University.

After graduating, her London agent soon found her a part. It was with North Country Theatre.

“I had heard of the company but never seen any of his productions,” she said.

She duly set off back North on the train to meet Nobby Dimon in Richmond, just a 45-minute drive from her family home.

Since then, except for summer rep seasons in Frinton and a two-year stint in Australia, she has hardly been away.

Performances of Twelfth Night continue tonight at Aske Hall, near Richmond; Bolton Castle on June 29 and 30; and at Kiplin Hall, near Scorton, on July 1 and 2. The Wish House opens on September 28 and tours small-scale venues until December 3.