Founders
Saskia Maas
Co-founder and director of InterActing
Founder of Boom Chicago and Falcon Agency
Saskia Maas is co-founder of InterActing, an initiative that helps young people with autism develop their social skills through improvisational theater. She is also CEO of Boom Chicago, a creative comedy company in Amsterdam that she founded in 1994 with Andrew Moskos and Pep Rosenfeld.
Pim Donkersloot
Founder ChildCenter
In 2001, Pim Donkersloot founded ChildCenter, a non-profit organization that provides treatment and counseling for children within the autistic spectrum. He is an educationalist (UvA) and specializes in autism and related developmental disorders. Donkersloot, himself the father of three children, two of whom are within the autistic spectrum, is also the author of two books, including Autism, a problem for the entire family.
The Education Team
Jake Lefebvre
Principal
Jake is an instructor at Boom Academy and head coach at InterActing. In 2010, he moved to Amsterdam from Belgium, where he built a career on stage. He gained experience as a performing artist in dance, musical, club, music and theater. In 2019, he was introduced to improv comedy and immediately joined Boom Chicago and InterActing. He gets great satisfaction from working with young people and helping them grow and reach their full potential.
Theater Assistants
Adam Emara
Theater Assistant and translator
Adam took a variety of courses, from Middle Eastern studies to Humanitarian Aid, and studied in Colombia and Sweden, among other places. He has since returned to The Hague. Theater, and especially improvisation, has played an important role in his life for years.
Since November 2025, he has been with InterActing, where he mentors children on stage and helps them develop their creativity and self-confidence with an encouraging and supportive approach.
Zoé de Bruijn
Child Psychologist
Zoé is a child psychologist and has experience counseling children and adolescents with autism. She has developed creative projects for children with fetal alcohol syndrome and has lectured about them at universities and colleges. According to Zoé, theater is an excellent tool for young people with autism to playfully develop social-emotional skills and increase their self-confidence.
Zep de Bruyn
Theater assistant and translator
Zep is a theater assistant and translator at InterActing. He also works in the book industry as an independent creative entrepreneur, focusing on illustration, writing and video production. He has been active in improv comedy since 2020 and as an English-language stand-up comedian since 2022. He is regularly impressed by the young people at InterActing and their development on and off stage.
Sinead Scanlan
Theater Assistant
Sinéad is a recent graduate of the University of Amsterdam and has been assisting with InterActing since 2022. She began improv at Boom Chicago in 2019, completed the full curriculum and has since performed on various student teams. Sinéad has struggled with anxiety and stage fright since childhood and has experienced how improv has helped her with it. She finds it inspiring to see how InterActing allows young people to develop similar confidence-building skills.
Amy Lawrenson
Theater Assistant
Amy is a theater assistant and teacher at InterActing. She has been improvising for three years and trained with Boom Chicago and EasyLaughs. She loves outspoken, energetic characters and enjoys playing on stage. Amy performed with the main cast and is a member of Boom Chicago Academy’s Home Party team. In addition to her work on stage, she is a wellness journalist and copywriter for brands such as Rituals, Kérastase and Under Armour.
Charlotte Goodchild
Theater Assistant
Charlotte has been part of the InterActing team for two years. For her, improvisation is about letting go of fixed ideas and fully embracing the moment. This fits well with how she is in her work. She enjoys working with students and creating spontaneous and playful scenes together.
Nathania Velasquez
Theater Assistant and translator
Nathania works as a freelancer in the theater world and has been associated with InterActing since the first quarter of 2024. Since then, she experiences it as a valuable and inspiring collaboration.
What she appreciates most about InterActing is seeing how students develop, not only in improvisation, but also in social skills. She finds it special to guide them, grow with them and hear their ideas and creativity.
Omar Breeveld
Theater assistant and translator
Omar joined InterActing almost a year ago because he himself plays regularly in teams and wanted to deepen his basic skills while helping others discover the joy of improvisational theater. He works as a teacher and translator.
What he likes most about InterActing is the sharpness and creativity of the children and their surprising way of approaching scenes.
Mark Prendergast
Theater Assistant
Mark is a filmmaker and improviser who started at InterActing in early 2025, primarily as a teaching assistant. He enjoys working with young people and creating a positive atmosphere in which they can learn and grow.
Nic Lakey
Theater Assistant
Nic is a theater assistant at InterActing.
Debbie Carvalho
Theater Assistant
Debbie is a marketing and communications professional who moved to Amsterdam in 2022. Since then, she has explored and trained in the world of improv at Boom Chicago Academy, where she was also a member of their Improv-to-Sketch house team, Son Of Clem. In 2024, she joined InterActing as a theater assistant. She enjoys supporting students as they discover and further grow their comedic talents through improvisation.
Jakob van Klinken
Theater Assistant and translator
Since early 2025, Jakob has been a theater assistant and translator at InterActing.
The Board
InterActing was founded by Saskia Maas of Boom Chicago and Pim Donkersloot of the ChildCenter Foundation
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.
For the first 16 years of her working life, she worked in the advertising industry at FHV/BBDO. With her networking organization The Zooooo, she now puts her extensive experience and network to work for 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 advisory firm focused on Dutch small and medium-sized businesses.
Tomer started his firm to be an all-round financial partner for their clients, offering services that encompass the entire financial business, from administration to tax advice and (business) financing.
Alexander Jansen
Secretary
Alexander Jansen works as a strategic communications consultant and manager for market-leading organizations and specializes in complex issues.
He is also socially active as a member of the LGBTIQ+ community and holds several board positions in political and cultural associations and foundations.
“Being different is difficult, which is why it’s important to give young people the tools to find their place in society. It’s great to be able to contribute to that through InterActing.”
Davide Tararbra
Board Member
Davide has worked in the IT industry for the past 15 years, gaining experience in a variety of areas, from product and business development at Amazon.com to strategic partnerships with Google and international growth at Wolt.
To better deal with the unexpected and learn to improvise in business, he was introduced to the power of stand-up comedy through Boom Chicago. He is excited about further expanding the role of InterActing for young people, as a safe environment in which they can develop problem-solving skills and build self-confidence.
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