VENTURA COUNTY WEEKEND : Santa Susana Troupe Gives Humbug a Good Name With Seasonal Delight : The company’s sixth annual ‘Christmas Carol’ features a top-notch Scrooge and well-seasoned cast.

The second production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” to open in Ventura County this month is, historically, the longest running.

The Santa Susana Repertory Company’s sixth annual edition opened last weekend at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, a week after the Soap Box Players’ premiere version debuted in Simi Valley. The Santa Susana company first produced “A Christmas Carol” in 1989 at the same building--a converted church--where the Simi Valley version is now running. Coincidence? You be the judge.

Though both shows follow the Dickens story reasonably closely, George T. Mitchell’s script and John Garrick’s direction of the Santa Susana production are more conventional--no ghostly dancers or special-effects spirits--and more expensively staged. Set designer Roger Ambrose has everything from buildings to snow dropping from the ceiling, and a fairly large cast fills the Forum’s capacious stage. (The Simi Valley production was reviewed here last week.)

Eric Christmas, now in his 80s, scowls and harumphs with such comic effervescence as Ebenezer Scrooge that he’s as delightful to watch before his conversion to sweetness and light as afterward. Cynics in the audiences might even favor the earlier Scrooge.

The Santa Susana group is known for using actors identified with soap operas; while Christmas has a long and distinguished stage background, these days he can be seen as Father Francis on “Days of Our Lives.”

Many of the actors here, including Christmas, have played in several past editions of this production. Among those alumni are Richard Livingston (Bob Cratchit), Richard Harwood (Fezziwig), Anthony Roush (young Scrooge), Susan Turner (Mrs. Fezziwig) and Heather Viau, whose soaring vocal solo as one of Cratchit’s daughters is once again one of the show’s highlights.

There are some offbeat notions at work: One actor plays in drag for no particular reason other than that he’s very funny; Marcy Mattox, as the Spirit of Christmas Past--blond and clad in what looks like a tiara and wedding gown--resembles Glinda, the Good Witch of the East; and the show’s narration is passed among several actors, including Stu Levin as the ghost of Scrooge’s former partner, Jacob Marley. (Puzzle solvers may try to figure out why the two men who come to Scrooge’s office for a Christmas donation to the poor are unaware that Marley--so generous in the past, they say--has been dead for seven years.)

A quartet of carolers prowls the Forum’s lobby before each performance, adding a religious flavor to what is almost entirely a secular, or at least nonsectarian, play.

Holiday Spirit Rewarded: The Santa Susana Repertory Company is doing its best to promote itself and the Gold Coast Performing Arts Assn., of which the company is a member. Mention the association, or “A Christmas Carol,” while you’re buying something at Borders Books on Thousand Oaks Boulevard this Friday through Sunday and the bookstore promises to donate 15% of all purchases you make to the association (a circular is being passed out at the play, but an association representative says that all you need do is mention the offer).

The company is also co-sponsoring a contest with The Oaks mall, KBBY-FM (95.1) and KADY-TV. Write, in 25 words or less, what holiday spirit means to you and become eligible for prizes, including a shopping spree at the mall, a diamond pendant and a catered gourmet dinner. Entrants must be 18 or older; daily prizes are awarded on the basis of creativity, and the grand-prize winner will be selected at random. Entry forms are available at the play, the mall’s customer service booth and the Giving Tree, but must be received no later than Monday.

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“A Christmas Carol” continues Wednesdays-Sundays through Dec. 23 at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza’s Forum Theatre, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks. Performances are at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; and at 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 for students and seniors, and $10 for children 12 and under, and can be purchased at the Civic Arts Plaza Box Office, or through Ticketmaster (a service charge will be assessed). Discounts are available for groups of 12 or more. For information, call 497-8616.