You’ve might have seen Twelfth Night before, but not like this!

Shakespeare has been done many ways. Serious Shakespeare, line by line, maybe not understood by all, but for serious students of the Bard, it is the only way. However, the plots and situations are still universal and have been used as the basis for various movies and other plays.

That is the inspiration of Central Texas Theatre Academy’s production of Shakespeare on the River’s Twelfth Night. First of all, the performances are happening at Blue Hole Regional Park, although later performances will also be held in New Braunfels.

And a few things have been slightly altered from the traditional telling. For instance, Twelfth Night takes place during the Victorian age while the theme for this telling is Steampunk, a science fiction combination of the industrial age steam powered technology with gears, etc., with the addition of futuristic technology.

“It’s a partnership with the city’s parks and recreation department, Parks Director Richard Shaver at Blue Hole has been awesome. We were able to book a private night, one of the after hours private swim times. It was a good bonding experience for the kids. Then they also got to see where we were performing,” said Director Bridget Gates.

“It is a lot of work. But then it really is so much fun, too.

I’m excited about the kids getting to have that experience, because that’s a whole other level of getting to learn about theater and design and really having to do it themselves.”

Bridget has been with touring acting companies before, and the logistics of all the necessary equipment to be moved, set up, taken down and taken back, each night can be a huge responsibility. Perhaps it is even more so with kids.

“We have four trucks that are moving all the big things, then we have two cars that are transporting all of the costumes in tubs. We have a handful of students that drive so they’ll be driving their own vehicles and meeting us there.”

There are also younger students 12 and 13 year olds included, for a grand total of 45 children. Getting them all to Blue Hole is easy compared to the New Braunfels performances where parents will have to drive them. As for the play, it is eternal. Twelfth Night is a comedy, complete with mistaken identities, infatuated lovers and the usual Shakespearian laughs and a sword fight.

“The story is of a set of twins that are separated at sea and each of the twins thinks the other died at sea. They’re shipwrecked and both of them are washed up on opposite shores of this island called illyria.

“The female twin decides to disguise herself as a young man to be able to get work more easily and to feel safer. So inevitably, what ends up happening is that people start mistaking each of the twins for the other, because now she’s dressed like a boy. Her boy twin is on the other side of the island. They’re traveling across the island, and these really funny misadventures happen, people thinking one twin is the other twin. Each of the twins falls in love with someone. There’s a lot of love in the story, a lot of music and singing in the show as well. It’s my favorite of Shakespeare’s comedies,” said Bridget.

It starts Thursday night, July 29 at the Blue Hole Regional Park also running July 31 and August 1 at 8 p.m. There’s free admission. “Pack a picnic and bring your own chair and blanket.”

For more information, visit CenTexTheatre.org.