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Jeremy Thompson and Anne Thibault are matchmakers, bad influences and most importantly directors this summer.

“They have to be in love and they have never been in love, they have to be drunk and they have never been drunk before,” Thompson said.

Thompson and Thibault are at the helm of the Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre’s Groundlings Youth Troupe summer production of “Twelfth Night” and part of their job is to teach experience to 13- to 18-year-old actors.

“Twelfth Night” is a classic tale of love and mistaken identity. The play opens with a shipwrecked character named Viola who disguises herself as a man to serve Duke Orsino. Orsino, smitten with Lady Olivia, uses Viola as a courtier to send love notes to Olivia.

Sounds simple enough until Viola falls for Orsino and Olivia, believing Viola is a man, falls for Viola. And while that situation plays itself out, a number of other subplots and characters are creating their own mischief.

The play has a cast of 19 people, including Groundlings veterans Emma Funk and Simon Viavant, who are returning for their second year.

“Last year was such an amazing time that I wanted to come back,” Funk said.

Funk plays Viola, and Viavant is Sir Andrew Aguecheek, a foolish admirer of Olivia. Both actors said they have no fear of the notoriously difficult Shakespeare material, in fact the material is their favorite part of the Groundlings.

“You get to work on Shakespeare all day long,” Funk said.

They admit to having a bit of stage fright but Viavant doesn’t let a small case of nerves diminish his love for acting and the play.

“Just to have fun, it’s a funny play,” Viavant said about why people should see the play.

Thompson said he chose “Twelfth Night” because he wanted the Groundlings to lighten up after producing the drama “Richard III” last summer. He also wanted his young thespians to see how funny and lighthearted Shakespeare could be.

“I wanted them to see how alive these characters can be,” he said.

Thompson, FST’s educational coordinator, and Thibault are doing double duty this summer. The professional actors will also be starring in FST’s “Taming of the Shrew.” Thompson said he and Thibault have a perfect combination of are directing the Groundlings by day and working on their own acting in the evenings.

“How lucky are we?” he said.

The play not only asks the children to act but there is also some singing and dancing. The final scene involves a big dance number that Funk and Viavant said took some work to get everyone on the same page.

“Everyone is happy, no one is dead, people are ladies when they were thought to be men,” Thibault tells the actors to get them in the right frame of mind for the final scene.

Thompson said the Groundlings program is an intensive workshop that has required the actors to memorize a majority of their lines in two weeks.

“That’s a lot of work and they’re doing a great job,” Thompson said.

Even with lines memorized, Thompson said there are still a number of things to be done before opening night such as props, costume and music but the biggest task will be the change of scenery. Soon the cast and crew will be trading the Empress Theatre for the outdoor stage at Jack Townsend Point on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus, where performances will be held June 20-22.

Thibault said the change of scenery will test the actors because they will have adjust their acting to fill the outdoor area. But she has no doubt the cast will rise to the challenge.

“They’re really good actors and this is a good production,” Thibault said.