THE BARD IS BIG : More than three centuries later, Shakespeare’s classics are still keeping audiences entertained.

Community theater in Ventura County is flourishing, with nearly 20 companies offering stage comedies, dramas and musicals on a regular basis.

What may surprise most people who don’t regularly follow the scene is the extent of current interest in the man many consider to be the greatest playwright of the English-speaking world.

No, not Neil Simon, but William Shakespeare.

And this long-lasting fame exists despite the fact that he hasn’t been around to promote himself since 1616 and he hasn’t written a new play since “The Tempest” in 1611.

Still, Shakespeare is in the air, with recent filmed versions of “Henry V” and “Hamlet” available on videotape for home viewing and local theater companies presenting an onslaught of material from the Bard’s quill.

“He was writing to entertain everybody,” said the Ojai Shakespeare Festival’s artistic director, Paul Backer, whose production of “Macbeth” opens this weekend.

“He’d include some laughs, some fights, some dramatic situations and some romance, plus subjects discussed seriously, with honest emotions. The impetus was the same as ‘Terminator 2’: to entertain as many people as possible and to make a buck.”

Backer compares “Macbeth” to many of today’s mysteries.

The question a contemporary audience would ask--what’s in the mind of the murderer?--is the same question Shakespeare was attempting to answer, he said.

“There’s a lot of violence in ‘Macbeth’; it’s meant to be disturbing. There was a lot of flak from the critics in Shakespeare’s day that his work was too violent, with too much sex, and it hasn’t really changed that much. If he knew what was really going on in Shakespeare, Jesse Helms would be down our backs.”

For Dana Elcar, artistic director of the Santa Paula Theater Center, “The thing is what you can discover in the plays. Shakespeare is like gold, and finding the nuggets is part of the fun.

“You will discover in the doing what the play is about,” Elcar says, “and why Shakespeare is who he is.”

Michael Jordan has directed the last two Shakespeare in the Park productions for Thousand Oaks’ Recreation and Park District and the Performing Arts Guild.

“I had gone to Globe Theater Shakespeare productions in San Diego once a year as a child,” he says, “. . . and was amazed at how boring the same plays were when we discussed them in English class. One reason for Shakespeare in the Park is to show that it is theater, it’s living and it’s fun.”

At least two local groups are attempting to bring Shakespeare to a wider--and younger--audience.

Each is in suburban Ventura County: the Ojai Shakespeare Festival is headquartered in Ojai, of course, and the California Shakespeare Company operates out of a nondescript industrial building just a block away from the decidedly non-Shakespearean Magnificent Moorpark Melodrama & Vaudeville Company’s converted movie theater.

Last year, four productions of Shakespeare’s plays were reviewed in these pages.

Already this year, Ventura County theatergoers have had an opportunity to see two very different presentations of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

And a community-sponsored company called “Shakespeare in the Park” is touring outdoor public facilities with a free production of “The Taming of the Shrew.”

The Santa Paula Theater Center’s previously announced first Shakespeare play, “A Comedy of Errors,” has been canceled.

But in September, the California Shakespeare Company will present “Romeo and Juliet” in its Moorpark theater.

* WHERE AND WHEN

* The Ojai Shakespeare Festival’s production of “Macbeth” will be presented Friday through Sunday and Aug. 9-11 at Libbey Bowl in Libbey Park, Ojai Avenue at Signal Street in Ojai. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 on Saturday and $10 on Friday and Sunday, with a $2 discount for students and seniors. There is no reserved seating, so early arrival is advised; it’s outdoors, so bring warm clothing. For further information, call (805) 646-9455.

* Saturday’s performance of Shakespeare in the Park’s “The Taming of the Shrew” will be held Saturday at 5 p.m. at Malibu Bluffs Little League Park, Pacific Coast Highway at Malibu Canyon Road in Malibu. On Sunday at 7 p.m., the troupe will perform at the Arts Council Center, 482 Greenmeadow Road, in Thousand Oaks. Both locations are outdoors; seating at the Arts Council Center is limited and assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. No reservations are accepted, but for information on either performance, call (805) 499-4355, weekdays.

* This year’s Ojai Shakespeare Festival workshops have closed; for information on the group or next summer’s programs, call (805) 646-9455 or write to P. O. Box 575, Ojai, CA 93024. For information on the California Shakespeare Company, whose classes continue throughout the year, call (805) 498-3354 or write 111-B Poindexter Ave., Moorpark, CA 93021.