VALLEY WEEKEND : NOTES : Curtain Closes on a Dramatic Year for Local Theater Groups : ’95 brought big changes, from upheaval in management at two venues to thriving business at others. And one longtime troupe ended its 50-year run.

The conclusion of a significant year in Ventura County theater approaches. The region’s longest-lived company fell by the wayside, victim to the income/expense ratio; two large, expensive venues began business in earnest; at least two groups underwent coups d’etat; and a new company formed in Moorpark--only to disappear after the first night of an announced three-weekend run of “Our Town.”

In July, the Plaza Players closed its theater’s doors. While the group’s productions varied wildly in quality during its nearly 50-year history, artistic director Michael Maynez consistently brought interesting plays to Ventura--shows whose controversial content (“Bent,” “M. Butterfly”) or unproven audience appeal (“The Cemetery Club,” “For the Use of the Hall,” “Prelude to a Kiss”) would keep them away from the more commercially oriented local companies. In part, thanks to such adventurous bookings, Maynez was also able to attract many of the county’s best actors.

At the other end of the county, the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza swung into full-time operation with home-grown main stage productions of “Peter Pan” and “The King and I” by the Cabrillo Music Theater in the 1,730-seat auditorium. There was also a season by the Santa Susana Repertory Company in the venue’s smaller (about 400-seat) Forum Theater.

The Simi Valley Cultural Center relocated to a converted church on Los Angeles Avenue, bringing 400 new seats to a community that wasn’t able to support productions in the group’s much smaller Court Theater.

*

Meanwhile, the Camarillo Community Theater and the Ojai Arts Center underwent changes at the top. The Camarillo upheaval won’t manifest itself until next summer, so we will have to wait and hope for the best. The Ojai group’s new management brought in an ambitiously (some would say over-) populated production of “Oliver!” “Calamity & Wild Bill,” previously produced in Santa Paula as an experimental drama, was resurrected in Ojai as an audience-friendly musical.

Dinner theater is not only alive and well in the county, but the Marquie Dinner Theatre managed to produce one of the most impressive of last year’s musicals, with its production of the seldom-seen “Two by Two.” Other noteworthy musicals were Moorpark College’s “Princess Ida,” the Camarillo Community Theater’s “Guys and Dolls,” and Cabrillo Music Theater’s “Peter Pan.”

The Santa Paula Theater Center’s “Dancing at Lughnasa” and “Of Mice and Men” stood out among the dramas. The Conejo Players’ “Lost in Yonkers” featured a couple of spectacular scenes, and Ventura College’s drama department followed last year’s production of Larry Kramer’s autobiographical AIDS documentary “The Normal Heart” with its sequel, “The Destiny of Me.”

The Conejo Players’ production of “Nunsense!” was the fifth locally since 1993, and the group also produced the third county version of “Love Letters” in a year’s time. More recently, groups in Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks produced simultaneous versions of “A Christmas Carol.”

Shakespeare abounded as the California Shakespeare Company reached into the Bard’s bag of chestnuts for nice versions of “Twelfth Night” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” along with the less common “Antony and Cleopatra” and “Henry IV, Part 1.” Classics in the Park brought forth yet another “Much Ado About Nothing,” and the Ojai Shakespeare Festival produced “The Tempest” (which Classics in the Park had done last year) and “A Comedy of Errors.”

The Santa Paula Theater Center, which had successfully exported “Quilters” to Santa Barbara last year, began exchanging programs with the new Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center; David Ralphe is artistic director of both companies. The Santa Susana Repertory Company, which presented this year’s versions of “Quilters” and “The Fantasticks” showed more imagination with “The Little Shop of Horrors.”

*

But wait--hold the eulogy. On Jan. 8, the indefatigable Michael Maynez will hold auditions for a new Plaza Players production, Paul Rudnick’s comedy “I Hate Hamlet.” Auditions begin at 7 p.m. at the Senior Recreation Center, 420 E. Santa Clara St., Ventura. For further information, call 653-2378.

Next week: In with the new (and not so new).