Eight teens have been selected as Rhodes junior apprentices for the Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival at California Lutheran University.

The program is named in honor of Rick Rhodes, an Emmy-winning composer from Oak Park who coordinated the curriculum for many years before he died in 2005 from a brain tumor.

The students are Teza Belmond and Patrick Rosenberg from Agoura High School, Kristina Gabler from Thousand Oaks High School, Ezekiel Irvin from Oxnard High School, Rachel Wells from Santa Susana High School in Simi Valley, and Danny Graff, Josh Sacks and Becca Johnson from Camarillo High School.

Before each production, the junior apprentices perform their own Shakespearespoofing skits in Will's Corner, and they interact with audience members as part of the "greenshow" pre-show entertainment. They also work backstage.

The teens attend acting classes taught by collegeage apprentices or professional company members.

The Kingsmen Shakespeare

Company, a professional theater company of CLU, presents the festival on the campus annually. Plays this summer are "Macbeth" through July 12 and "All's Well That Ends Well" from July 17 through Aug. 2.

The grounds open at 5:30 p.m. for picnicking. Preshow entertainment featuring the Rhodes junior apprentices and college appren tices begins at 6:45 p.m., and shows start at 8 p.m.

For more information, visit www.kingsmenshakespeare.org or call (805) 493-3455.