Year Brings More Misses Than Hits

Ventura County had so much theatrical activity last year that it’s taken two columns to review it all. Last week we looked at what was constant in the theater scene: overlapping productions of “A Christmas Carol” and “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” This week, we look at what’s in flux.

The ground shifted under community theaters in particular. The most notable departure was the Plaza Players, a group that was limping into its 48th season already when it was evicted from its space in downtown Ventura. Artistic director Michael Maynez moved his troupe to a senior recreation center briefly, considered another move to Fillmore, and then the curtain seemed to fall.

But Maynez appears to be the kind of guy who always has an ace up his sleeve. Now he and the Plaza Players are set to reemerge--and begin a 49th season--in Ojai in February with a production of “After the Light Goes,” about painter Georgia O’Keefe.

Another loss was the California Shakespeare Company, whose ambitious and consistently excellent slate of plays failed to generate enough interest. Apparently the group’s hometown of Moorpark didn’t find it a cultural resource worth preserving. The troupe is moving, probably out of the county. It’s our loss, though there’s nothing stopping Shakespeare fans from driving over the Conejo Grade to Agoura Hills, or wherever the group winds up. We’ll let you know.

The Xanadu Theater Company seems to have disappeared--or it just kept a very low profile in 1996. And the Santa Susana Repertory Company, the resident professional theater company at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, is looking for a new space so it won’t have to pay the plaza’s pricey rent.

Moorpark College opened a lovely new Performing Arts Center--and started attracting audiences that never came to its earlier fine shows in the tiny Forum Theater. And Oxnard High School’s newish Performing Arts Center opened to a local amateur group for a run of “A Christmas Carol.”

The grandly named Ojai Civic Light Opera set up without a permanent place to play. Its “Camelot” opened in a local high school auditorium in the middle of summer--sans air conditioning or sufficient parking--before moving outdoors to Libbey Bowl. And last month’s “My Fair Lady” brought the same company to Ventura College’s in-the-round Circus Theater.

*

In the meantime, the loose confederation of theater groups in Ojai seems to have disintegrated because of infighting. That’s too bad, since it was the closest local producers had come to organizing in years.

An outfit called Fool Moon, based in Santa Monica, set up shop in Ventura and offered solid professional versions of “Pump Boys and Dinettes” and “Starting Here--Starting Now” at Ventura College during the summer.

The venerable Camarillo Community Theater made wholesale changes to its production staff, something it has done often over the years. Though it has hit artistic heights in the past, including with some members of the present administration, things did not go that well in ’96.

Even the theater company seemed to know something was amiss because it began discouraging press coverage early in the season. A word of advice to the public: If a show isn’t ready to be reviewed, it probably isn’t ready for you, either.

The Santa Paula Theater Center is tied in, management wise, with the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, resulting in, among other productions, “The Miracle Worker” and “Bleacher Bums,” both of which were produced in one venue then moved to the other.

The Comedy Tonight’s shows have also been mobile. Versions of “The Mikado” and “Tomfoolery” shifted between Thousand Oaks, Ojai and Simi Valley.

It looks as though the bottom is falling out of the Court Theater in Simi Valley--metaphorically speaking. A lengthy renovation gave the company a nice theatrical space in Simi Valley, but the support isn’t there. Look for its production and youth programs to move elsewhere. If Court Theater leaves town, it’s Simi Valley’s loss.

Next week: A look at what’s planned for 1997.