THEATER NOTES : Performances Added for ‘Boys Next Door’

“The Boys Next Door,” the first play produced under David Ralphe’s reign as artistic director of the Santa Paula Theater Center, has been held over through this weekend because, Ralphe said, “we were selling out, and demand was growing.”

The play, for those who haven’t seen it, concerns a group of mental patients who live in a halfway house.

There will be two cast changes for the added performances. Dale Champion, who had been playing two minor roles, has been promoted to replace Karl Mickelson as schizophrenic Barry Klemper, while Mickelson appears in a production of “The Nutcracker” in Sacramento.

Taking over the part of Mr. Klemper, Barry’s father, will be Ralphe’s old friend, Richard Kneeland. “The part was written for Richard by (playwright) Tom Griffin,” said Ralphe, “when Richard was performing with the Trinity Rep Theater in Rhode Island.”

Performances are today through Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. The last performances of “The Boys Next Door” will be this weekend, Ralphe added, because another company’s production of “The Nutcracker” will move into the theater.

HUMBUG! (AND HUMBUG! FM)

For the third year, Camarillo-based Every Now and Then Theater will produce readings of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” As in 1991 and 1992, the show, featuring a cast of local performers, businesspeople and media lights, will broadcast on the radio before the Channel Harbor Parade of Lights. Listen to KBBY-FM (95.1) Saturday at 6 p.m.

But here’s a first: The company will restage the show as a live performance at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Camarillo Airport Theater, 330 Skyway Drive in Camarillo. The story will be presented as if it were a “live” broadcast, complete with period commercials.

Tickets are $10, with proceeds--after expenses--going to Casa Pacifica, a center for abused and neglected children. For reservations, call 388-5716.