Staff

Lisa Loomis
Drama Teacher

Lisa, is the former Executive Director for Drama Kids of Eastside Seattle. Lisa brings over 20 years of education and drama experience and she has a real passion for making children feel encouraged and confident in themselves through drama.

Lisa’s background includes a Masters degree in business combined with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Dramatic Arts and Interpersonal Communications. She also brings a variety of teaching and organizing experiences, including Professor of graduate courses through DeVry University, Teacher and Organizer of Summer Youth Drama Camp, Elementary Classroom Teaching Assistance, Teacher of Sunday School Programs, Director of Dramatic Arts Programs through a local church and more!

Mary Brown
Lead Teacher

Although Mary graduated from the University of Arizona with dual education degrees in liberal and fine arts, it wasn’t until early 2015 that joining Drama Kids enabled the merging of her two greatest passions: Drama and Teaching!

Mary is an avid proponent of providing fine arts exposure and experience to the youth of our increasingly digital world. She feels that sound social and cultural development necessitates “unplugging” from the cycle of constant input!

Through drama “play,” we encourage our children to explore and express themselves in real-time, fostering genuine social interactions. Mary is grateful that Drama Kids can provide such opportunities, despite diminished political and financial support for the arts.

Her passion for “all things Drama” doesn’t cease at the close of the school week: you will often see Mary working at or performing for various theaters in the Puget Sound area.

Laelia Nguyen
Drama Teacher

Laelia grew up in Southern California where she developed a love of drama in her middle school drama club. She went on to be involved in drama at the community level as well as at her own high school. She studied Drama and Education at the University of California, Irvine, where she was involved with Theatre Woks, a club that worked to bring more Asian representation to the stage. Following graduation, she began working as a fencing coach, teaching a broad range of ages from kindergartners to seniors. Beyond drama, Laelia enjoys all aspects of the arts, including dance, art, fashion, TV and film, and video games.

Castor Rosencrantz Kent
Drama Teacher

Castor Rosencrantz Kent is a Tacoma-based multidisciplinary teaching and theatre artist. Castor is an experienced performer, designer, and director, who enjoys reading, making music, traveling, and baking during free time. Castor has been teaching/mentoring students of all ages throughout the past decade, and is thrilled to be working with Drama Kids this year.

Aluska Hebert
Administrative Assistant

Aluska Hebert was born in Brazil and became a Seattleite 4 years ago. She genuinely believes that giving children access to different cultures and a safe environment to learn and express their feelings is essential to becoming good human beings. Before working at Drama Kids, Aluska provided support in the sales and administrative fields, helping businesses and small brands expand their digital presence and profit goals. Aluska holds a certificate in Project Management from the University Of Washington.

Tara Cicora
Marketing Manager

Tara Cicora was born in Cleveland Ohio and moved to Seattle in 2006. She majored in communications while at Ohio University and has over fifteen years of experience working in Communications Marketing, Public Relations, and Management; over twenty years of experience in customer service, and ten years of experience in sales. Tara has been offering her skills to businesses of varying sizes in full-time and freelance capacities since college. Tara, an avid show choir singer, dancer, and member of her school’s drama clubs believes that creating a safe environment for children to express their feelings is essential to becoming a productive adults. She has also been training horses (and humans) in dressage and hunter/jumper since she was in college, in what free time she has she likes to read, do yoga and meditate, play with her sword collection (she was on the SCA fencing team in college), her violin and guitar and exercise her dog.

Mary-Celeste
Drama Teacher

Mary-Celeste considers herself a modern humanist and recognizes drama and speech as essential facets of a well-rounded education. Mary-Celeste graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in  umanities, an English emphasis, and with minors in Editing and Italian. She is a classically trained soprano and loves singing, writing historical romance novels, reading, playing games of all sorts, and children–especially her  students and her young son and daughters.

Donny Gersonde
Drama Teacher

Donny Gersonde is a local teaching artist originally from San Diego! After attending Coronado School of the Arts he went to The Hartt School where he worked towards his BFA in Musical Theatre. After performing in over 40 Musicals he found a love for teaching! He teaches Tap, Musical Theatre, Jazz and Audition Prep. Formerly for the Coronado School of the Arts, and also was dance coordinator for the advanced performing arts program at Coronado Middle School. He is also a freelance dance teacher at many places across the county.

Michaela Diamond
Drama Teacher

Michaela was born in Minnesota, moved to Maryland, and completed her undergraduate degree in theater in 2018. She is also a recent graduate of Vancouver Film schools makeup for film and television programs. Michaela has worked as a nanny, camp counselor, preschool teacher, actor, director choreographer, lighting and set designer, and stage manager. Theater holds a very special place in her heart because it is what turned a very shy kid into the outgoing person she today. This is what drives her to work with kids and help them experience the same transformation she did.

Join our team! Drama Kids is seeking dynamic and fun part time teachers to meet our growing class schedule.  Please visit our Contact Us Page and submit your interest.