About us
Founders
Saskia Maas
Director of InterActing and CEO Boom Chicago
Saskia is director of InterActing, and in her position she ensures the growth and name recognition of the Foundation to reach as many young people as possible. She is also CEO of Boom Chicago, the creative comedy company she founded in 1993 with Andrew Moskos and Pep Rosenfeld.
Pim Donkersloot
Founder ChildCenter
Pim started Childcenter in 2001, an organization that provides guidance to parents and children on the spectrum. He is also author of Autism, a Problem for the Whole Family, among others. He is involved with InterActing in the background in an advisory role.
The Educational Team
Jake Lefebvre
Head coach
Jake is an instructor at Boom Academy and head trainer at Interacting. In 2010, he landed in Amsterdam as a Belgian and built a career on stage. He has gained experience as a creating and performing artist within the dance, musical, club, music and theater worlds. In 2019, he dove into the Improvisational Comedy world and immediately joined Boom Chicago and InterActing. He enjoys working with students to help them grow and reach their full potential.
Theater Assistants
Djamali Jones
Theater Assistant
Djamali is one of the theater assistants at Interacting. He has an eye for the creative in both his work as a Visual Effects Artist, and on stage during improv. In 2019, he started the Intro to Improv course at Boom Chicago and then completed the full curriculum. This led to him becoming part of the house team Pointing at Fingers and Interacting! Where he takes great joy in guiding students through their development in comedy!
Zoé de Bruijn
Child Psychologist
Zoé is a child psychologist and has worked as a counselor for children and adolescents with autism. She was responsible for devising creative projects for children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (autistic traits) and has lectured on the subject at universities and colleges. According to Zoé, theater is the way to educate young people with autism through play, develop social-emotional skills and increase self-confidence.
Zep de Bruyn
Assistant and Translator
Zep is an assistant and translator at InterActing. He works in the book business and as an independent creative entrepreneur, mainly as an illustrator, writer and videographer. He has been actively engaged in improv comedy since 2020 and as an English-language stand-up comedian since 2022. He is permanently impressed by the students at InterActing and their growth on and off stage.
Sinead Scanlan
Theater Assistant
Sinéad is a graduate student at the University of Amsterdam who has been assisting with Inter-Acting since 2022. She began studying improv at Boom Chicago in 2019, quickly completed the entire curriculum, and has since performed as part of several dorm teams. Sinéad, who has struggled with anxiety and stage fright since childhood, has found improv to be a huge help, and loves seeing Inter-Acting teach students the same confidence-building skills.
Amy Lawrenson
Theater Assistant
Amy is a theater assistant and teacher at InterActing. She has been improvising for three years and has trained at Boom Chicago and EasyLaughs – she loves playing great characters and having fun on stage. She has performed with the main cast and is a member of Boom Chicago Academy’s Home Party team. When not performing, Amy is a wellness journalist and copywriter and works for brands such as Rituals, Kerastase and Under Armour.
The board
Inter-Acting was founded by Pim Donkersloot of ChildCenter Foundation and Saskia Maas of Boom Chicago.
Irene Koel
President
Irene Koel is a social innovation entrepreneur, teacher, speaker, volunteer with Women on Wings, her podcast MonkeyTalk on creativity has been listened to more than 100,000 times. She spent the first 16 years of her working life in the advertising industry at FHV/BBDO. With her networking organization, The Zooooo, she now puts her vast experience and network to use in social causes. “From hole in the market to hole in society,” as she says herself.
For more information: www.thezooooo.com
Tomer Zakai
Treasurer
Treasurer Tomer Zakai is director/owner of Consult&Co, a dynamic and creative administration and consulting firm focused on Dutch small and medium-sized businesses.
Tomer started his firm to be an all-round financial partner for their clients and to offer services that encompass the entire financial business, from administration to tax advice and (corporate) financing.
Alexander Jansen
Secretary
Alexander Jansen works as a strategic communications consultant and manager for market-leading organizations and specializes in complex issues. In addition, as part of the LGBTQ+ community, he is actively socially involved and multiple director, for political and cultural associations and foundations. “Being different is difficult, which is why it is important to give young people the tools to find their place in society. It’s great to be able to contribute to this through InterActing.”
Davide Tararbra
General Board Member
Davide has worked in IT for the past 15 years, gaining experiences ranging from product and business development at Amazon.com, to strategic partnership with Google, to expansion at Wolt. To deal with the unexpected and improvise in business, he came in contact with the power of stand-up comedy at Boom Chicago. He is excited about expanding InterActing’s role for young people to create a safe place where they can develop the skills to solve problems and build self-confidence!
For more information: www.thezooooo.com
Our Partners
