Our Staff
Charles Pasternak
Pasternak’s SCS tenure as Artistic Director began in 2023, before which he served as Artistic Director of The Porters of Hellsgate Theatre Co in Los Angeles for over fifteen years. He has had a wide-ranging career as an actor and director at theatres across this country including American Players Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Clarence Brown Theatre, The Denver Center, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, three seasons with The Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis and four with Shakespeare Santa Cruz.
Lorne Dechtenberg
Joining the SCS team in 2023, Dechtenberg (he/him) brings more than fifteen years of arts management experience in venues ranging from theatres and concert halls to recording studios and film sets. Before coming to Santa Cruz, he served as Executive & Artistic Director of Bluegrass Opera & Music Theatre, where he produced dozens of challenging works, including the second staging of Broadway’s LoveMusik and the world premiere of ILLYRIA (a Gilbert-and-Sullivan-style adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night). Dechtenberg holds DMA and MM degrees from the University of Kentucky, as well as a second MM from the University of Houston.
Rachel Lee Rogers
Passionate about community, the arts, and especially Shakespeare, Rogers (she/her) has been developing and fundraising for theatre for twenty years. She was a founding member and Development Director for Shaking Will, a New Jersey Shakespeare Collective, and served as Development Director for Balagula Theatre Company before becoming Artistic Director. Most recently Producing Director for Bluegrass Opera and Music Theatre, her professional career includes years of acting (AEA), directing, design, and drama education, always with a commitment to outreach and the future of theatre. Rogers holds a B.F.A. in Acting/Directing and a B.A. in Literature and Playwriting from Northern Kentucky University with M.F.A. studies at Mason Gross School for the Arts, Rutgers, and post-graduate certification in Shakespearean and Jacobean Theatre from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.
Rebecca Haley Clark
Rebecca was born and raised in Santa Cruz, and had her first meeting with Shakespeare at Gault Elementary. She received her undergraduate degree in Drama and Comparative Ethnic Studies at Columbia University, and is currently finishing her Masters of Fine Arts of Classical and Contemporary Text - Directing at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She also completed a Fulbright research grant to study Shakespeare and race studies in Rio de Janeiro. She is excited to continue to work within the intersection of social justice, education, and the performing arts.
Alicia Gibson
Alicia is very grateful to be a part of the Santa Cruz Shakespeare team. She has loved Shakespeare since high school and is looking forward to introducing more people to the work. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara theatre directing program and has worked as a director and stage manager in Los Angeles for many years.
Shannen Craig
Shannen was born & raised in Santa Cruz and joined the Santa Cruz Shakespeare team in 2024. She has always valued artistic expression and has dabbled in a variety of mediums through the years. Shannen has many years experience in management and has worked for the leading weekly newspaper in Santa Cruz County since 2017 as Circulation Manager. She enjoys working with such an amazing community and is looking forward to meeting new people and broadening her knowledge in theatre arts.
Amy M Gardner
Southern-raised, New England-educated, and California-loving, Amy has over 25 years of marketing, communications, and design experience. After launching twin boy theatre nerds out into the world, her need to keep the arts a central part of her life impelled her to bring her talents to Santa Cruz Shakespeare. She is a proud graduate of Smith College, and continues to educate herself with piano lessons, art history classes, language studies, dance, and being a docent at the NUMU in Los Gatos. Amy lives in an empty nest with her lovely husband Paul and her questionably-behaving dog Teddy.
Andrew Mendoza
Andrew began his accounting journey as a contractor and eventually owned his own business, providing accounting and bookkeeping services to a wide net of clients. He holds a degree in Political Science, and most recently a double major in Accounting and Finance from San Jose State University. Now he has topped it off by earning his CPA license.
When he is not working, he spends time with his family and even played video games professionally at one point. Now he enjoys coaching upcoming gamers and playing casually with his younger brother. Andrew is excited to contribute to the amazing artistic missions that Santa Cruz Shakespeare wholeheartedly supports.
Skyler Rose Marshall
Skyler was born and raised in Benicia, California, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from UC Berkeley. She is currently a doctoral student and teaching assistant in UC Santa Cruz’s Literature PhD program. Even though she’s writing her dissertation on Virginia Woolf, she frequently reads and teaches Shakespeare’s plays with UCSC undergraduates. Skyler first worked with Santa Cruz Shakespeare co-writing the dramaturgy packet for Hamlet as the 2024 THI Public Humanities Fellow and is thrilled to help bring Shakespeare to the community as the company manager for the 2025 season. Skyler has worked a variety of administrative and logistics roles, most recently as the executive assistant to a New York Times bestselling author/TED speaker and as the HR manager at a salmon cannery on Kodiak Island, Alaska. She currently lives in Santa Cruz with her two orange cats, Winston and Puck.
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