THEATER NOTES : Dark Nights Ahead : The Music Theatre of Ventura County has yet to plan its season. And Santa Barbara CLO has competition at home.

Don’t look for the Music Theatre of Ventura County to set up shop for a full schedule of productions this coming season.

“Our board of directors discussed plans to do a limited number of shows,” Karyl Lynn Burns said this week, “. . . but there are no plans at this time.” Burns, a representative of the Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera, formed the Music Theatre of Ventura County in 1990.

The opening Music Theatre production, “Evita,” reportedly sold an encouraging 12,000 tickets during its July, 1990, run at the 1,600-seat Oxnard Civic Auditorium.

Momentum didn’t continue through the 1991 season, though, and after productions of “South Pacific” and “Cabaret,” the final announced 1991 show--”Guys and Dolls”--was canceled at the last minute and replaced by a scaled-down revue of Stephen Sondheim songs. In the meantime, the Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera is facing an assault at home as the Pasadena Playhouse this year initiates a season at the local company’s longtime home, the Lobero Theater (where “Fiddler on the Roof” continues through June 14).

The Santa Barbara group is moving to the Granada Theater, which seats 900 as compared to the Lobero’s 600, where its first production, “Gypsy,” will open this fall. (Venturans who can’t wait can see the Cabrillo Music Theatre production of “Gypsy” at the Dorill Wright Center in Port Hueneme beginning Friday night.) Future Civic Light Opera productions may be moved to Ventura, says Burns, who adds: “There is the possibility of an event or events and plans to continue music theater in Ventura County in the future.”

WHAT’S SHAKIN’: So successful was last year’s edition of the Ojai Shakespeare Festival, on the other hand, that the company this year will produce two plays: “Henry IV, Part 2” and the comedy “Two Gentlemen of Verona.” Look, too, for a version of the popular Renaissance fairs that have sprung up around the country--only this one is promised to be a part of the festival’s entertainment package, not a commercial enterprise.