Riverside's very own California Citrus State Historic Park and Fairmount Park will host Shakespeare's classic comedy, Twelfth Night, this July. Twelfth Night continues tonight and Saturday at the California Citrus State Historic Park, with doors opening at 7 p.m. Fairmount Park will hold the play Thursday, July 16, and Friday, July 17, with doors opening at 7 p.m. Riverside's production of Twelfth Night is being put on by the Full Circle Players. The Full Circle Players is a local nonprofit theater company, spearheaded by Wendi Johnson, that specializes in producing plays on a range of scales. Twelfth Night is a part of the free Shakespeare in the Park tour. The tour will make its final stops at The Sun City Civic Association Amphitheater in Menifee on Friday, July 24, and Lake Perris State Park on Saturday, July 25. Shakespeare on a nice summer night under the stars was the way it was meant to be seen.
The summer of 2026 will be the fourth summer the Full Circle Players have been producing Shakespearean theater. Johnson founded the theater company with the intentions of "Making theater and arts easily accessible to the Inland Empire." Johnson loves her community as she serves as the theater director at Henry J. Kaiser High School. This year, Johnson is putting on her educator hat to lead a youth Shakespeare theater camp. The youth program is funded by community donations, city sponsorship, and an arts & parks grant. This means the campers can pay what they can. "Money should never be a reason to not participate in something that interests you," says Johnson. Camp will take place at the California Citrus State Historic Park from July 6-10, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The five days at camp will be devoted to preparing the campers to perform their own rendition of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night on July 10.
Johnson knew she had to launch a youth theater camp for this summer: "Theater gives children an opportunity to gain confidence; kids are able to come out of their shells and make new friends through theater." The first day, each camper learned the story of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Johnson will guide the children in devising their own interpretation of the play through various activities that help them flesh out their own version of the story. One of the first activities had the campers doing acting exercises with puppetry. Playing with puppets in a theater setting will teach them how to create their own character and stay focused while in character. The puppets will help campers develop their own characters that could fit into the Twelfth Night story. This is one of many activities designed to enhance the camper's creative senses. There were more than a dozen kids participating on the first day of camp. Amy Lopez, 13, describes the camp, "I joined because I wanted to learn my first piece of Shakespeare. It's great here, and I'm already making new friends." Full Circle Players are providing a safe space for theater kids to meet peers who share their passion.
Twelfth Night will be performed by a troupe of local actors selected through auditions held by the Full Circle Players. Auditions were in April, finding local theater actors Stephanie Yglesias, Cigourney Vielman, Julian Carasco, and many more. Rehearsals kicked off in May to prepare for the July shows. The play is a big celebration of life, filled with laughter and love. To keep up that positive energy, actors will interact with the audience by dancing with them. The audience will feel that they have a role to play in the show. At every performance, there will be a pre-show before the performance of Twelfth Night. Most of the pre-shows will have a local artist entertaining the crowd. On July 10, the devised interpretation of Twelfth Night, performed by the youthful campers, will be the pre-show treat. The camp performance will start at 6:30 p.m. on July 10. Every show this July will offer free entry, and attendees are encouraged to bring friends, family, dogs, and a picnic.
More information: Twelfth Night is free and open to the public. Performances continue tonight and Saturday at California Citrus State Historic Park, followed by July 16-17 at Fairmount Park, July 24 at Sun City Civic Association Amphitheater in Menifee, and July 25 at Lake Perris State Park in Perris, with doors opening at 7 p.m. each night. Details: fullcircleplayers.com.
By Maxen Olvera
