Leslie Pasternack is an actor, director, playwright and dramaturg working on the NH/MA seacoast. In addition to owning Lemon Punch Theatre Lab, Leslie serves as the director of the New Play Lab at The Players Ring in Portsmouth. She holds her Ph.D. in Theatre History from the University of Texas at Austin and is also a graduate of the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre.

Leslie spent fifteen years teaching theatre history and acting on the college level at U.T. Austin, Northeastern University and Muhlenberg College. Leslie is an accomplished playwriting consultant and has also taught workshops in playwriting, stage combat, mask performance, commedia, and physical presentation at venues including Dartmouth College, Methodist University, The Actors Studio of Newburyport, Gould Academy, and NH Theatre Project. Recent directing credits include Morning Sun (theatre KAPOW); Enid’s Mill (The Players Ring) Trifles & Escaped Alone (Firehouse Center); The Revolutionists (Firehouse Center); the performance/outreach series MAKE SURE IT’S ME/nh, based on Kate Wenner’s play about Traumatic Brain Injury in the military; Caryl Churchill’s A Number; Albee’s The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?; and Will Eno’s Tragedy: a tragedy.

Leslie’s solo shows have played in Allentown, Newburyport, Boston, New York City, Portsmouth, Concord, MA and Providence, RI. Her masked solo show, Clean Room, earned the 2012 Seacoast Spotlight Awards for Best Original Script and Best Actress. In 2018 she played John Wesley Powell in NHPT’s production of Men on Boats. In 2025, Leslie played multiple roles in As Small as Stars and The Man Who Laughs at the Players’ Ring and in Romeo & Juliet for theatre KAPOW. Leslie also serves on the Board of the Newmarket Millspace. For more about Leslie’s work in and outside of the Lab, visit:

lesliepasternack.com