Arts Plaza Anniversary Fund-Raiser May Disclose More Than 1 Mystery : Supporters: Besides the whodunit onstage, there will be the question of why certain people are not there; the $250 ticket won’t necessarily be the reason.

The invitations promise a mystery dinner to celebrate the first year of the Civic Arts Plaza’s operation.

But the real mystery may be who shows up.

Minutes after sunset tonight, those willing to shell out $250 a ticket will mingle with some of Ventura County’s top public servants at the exclusive Sherwood Country Club as the whodunit unfolds.

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury will be there. So will Thousand Oaks Councilman Andy Fox and Fillmore Mayor Linda Brewster.

They and other surprise guests have agreed to appear as characters in the Santa Susana Repertory Theater Company production of “Who Murdered the Mayor?”, a fund-raiser for the Alliance for the Arts.

Jaime Zukowski, the real-life mayor of Thousand Oaks, won’t be attending. She has been critical of the arts plaza in the past.

The black-tie dinner is being hosted by David Murdock, the billionaire Lake Sherwood Country Club owner.

Meanwhile, the man whose name is emblazoned across the performing arts center, Charles E. Probst, is missing from the list of prominent Thousand Oaks residents sponsoring the dinner.

Martha Zilm, the donor relations liaison for the alliance, did not want to discuss who is and is not attending the black-tie affair, which has been planned for months.

“We’re expecting about 150 people, but we’d love to have more,” Zilm said. “There’s room.”

Cheryl Collart, the alliance executive director, said anyone is welcome. Tickets will be available until 7 p.m. today at Sherwood Country Club.

“The invitations went out to more than 600 people,” Collart said. “Anyone who is on the alliance mailing list would have gotten one.”

Alliance officials say they hope to raise tens of thousands of dollars for the arts center.

The omission of Probst as an anniversary party sponsor follows reports that he is behind in making payments on his $2-million pledge to the endowment that supports the Civic Arts Plaza. It was that pledge that earned Probst the right to have his name on the center.

Thousand Oaks Councilwoman Elois Zeanah said last month that she wants his name taken off the Charles E. Probst Center for the Performing Arts because she has been told he has failed to make at least two $250,000 payments.

Probst has not returned telephone queries about the pledges and asking whether he will attend the dinner.

Officials from the Alliance for the Arts, a nonprofit endowment set up to raise operating funds for the arts plaza, have refused Zeanah’s call to open their books. Donor contracts call for confidentiality, they said.

The debate matters little to Brewster, the Fillmore mayor who was given two complimentary tickets to the dinner theater and will be escorted by her husband, Pat. She has two lines in the production.

“It’s a black-tie event,” she said. “Pat went out and rented a tux, and I’m wearing my daughter’s prom dress.”

Like other elected officials, Brewster was given a script to the theater production. She said Councilman Fox is the first to get it: one bullet in the chest. Two others are bumped off before the mystery unravels.

But not even Brewster knows who does the deeds. “They left off the last four pages of the script.”