Students will run the Harvard Student Theater Festival at the Loeb Drama Center for the first time this summer, with Summer School students being given more chance to participate in the drama program than in past years.

Harvard students will direct and produce four shows this summer on the Loeb Drama Center's main stage. The staff of 18 people will also use summer students for extras and technical assistants. Andrew B. Stewart '79, publicity director and house manager for the theater festival group, said last week.

The actors will present William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" July 4-7 and 11-14 at 8 p.m., an adaptation of two 1890s sex tragedies in "Lulu" July 18-21 and 25-28 at 8 p.m., Vladimir Mayakovsky's "The Bedbug" August 1-4 and 8-11 at 8 p.m., and an adapatation of Richard Wagner's "Ring" cycle August 15-18 at 7:30 p.m.

Peter Sellars '80, director of the festival, adapted the version of the "Ring", which was presented in Denver, Colo., last summer.

The troupe will be working with a budget of about $50,000 from the Summer School, sources said. Susan E. Webber '79, producer of the festival, declined to discuss the budget, but Stewart called it "bare bones".

The students' budget is the same as the deficit run last summer by George E. Hamlin Jr., producing director of the Loeb, Stewart said. Hamlin is not running the summer troupe because he directed another show earlier this spring, Stewart added. Hamlin, out of town, was unavailable for comment.

Earlier this year, Hamlin announced he would retire as producing director of the Loeb at the end of the school year.

The Summer School approved the student season at the Loeb as its cheapest option for maintaining theater at Harvard in the summer, Webber said. "It is unprecedented to turn students entirely loose on the Loeb," she said, but added that Donald R. Soule, technical director of the Loeb, will be assisting them.

Students will probably not be running the Loeb theater next summer because Robert S. Brustein, new director of the Loeb, is expected to maintain a professional group there year-round.

Auditions for "The Bedbug" and for anyone interested in theater work will be held tonight and tomorrow form 7-9 p.m. at the Loeb Center.

The student actors are Anne Clarke '79, Grace Shohet '81, Christian D. Clemenson '80-3, Japes Emerson '78, David Frutkoff '79, Brian G. McCue '81, Paul Redford '80 and David Reiffel '79.

All Summer School students will receive free admission to the four shows