A Theater Kid Champions the Arts Where They Are Needed Most
As we hit our 56th episode, we love firsts on the Future of the Business World podcast. This month, we get to explore the business of theater and the arts. Wharton Global Youth student Alex Felberbaum shares how his transformative love of Broadway and acting inspired his non-profit, the SAID Project, which has worked with celebrities like Queen Latifah, Marcus Scribner and Gina Gershon to bring stage and screen to public high school students.
Be sure to click the arrow above to listen to our conversation. An edited transcript appears below.
Wharton Global Youth Program: Hello and welcome to Future of the Business World. I’m Diana Drake of the Wharton Global Youth Program at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Teen entrepreneurs have a special kind of grit, propelled forward by their passions and a youthful confidence that helps them look beyond the roadblocks and just keep building. Today’s guest had a vision and never looked back. He joined Wharton Global Youth’s Essentials of Entrepreneurship program last summer, and this summer, he’s headed to Wharton’s Philadelphia campus to be part of our Leadership in the Business World program.
But first, let’s learn about The SAID Project. Alex Felberbaum, welcome to Future of the Business World.
Alex Felberbaum: Thank you so much, Diana. Great to be here.
Wharton Global Youth: Alex, tell us about yourself. Where do you go to school and what are your interests?
Alex Felberbaum: I go to Horace Mann School, which is located in the Bronx in New York. I am interested in theater and the performing arts, and also aviation and business.
Wharton Global Youth: Let’s talk about that theater piece first. Would you describe yourself as a theater kid? What productions have you done through the years?
Alex: I definitely categorize myself as a theater kid. I’ve done around six productions at my school so far since sixth grade. Let’s see, my big names are Our Town, Singing in the Rain and Chicago. My favorite role to play was Amos Hart in Chicago. That was amazing.
Wharton Global Youth: Sounds very fun. I think you’re probably pretty good too by the way you’re describing it. Have you had leads?
Alex: Yes, I don’t mean to brag, but every year since the beginning of my theater career at school, I’ve had a lead in each production,
Wharton Global Youth: Amazing. Was there a moment in your life when you felt theater had a big impact on you? What would that be? Can you give us a picture of it?
Alex: When I was younger, probably around seven, I got to see what would become my favorite musical of all time, which is Phantom of the Opera. And when I got to see it, I just fell in love with the music, the actors, the scenery. As those people who have seen it, they will know that it is a very technical show, and it’s very like, wow, wow. It’s very phantasmic. And that show instilled this love of theater and interest in becoming part of the theater community. So, I set out to do that, and I never looked back.
Wharton Global Youth: Since then, you never looked back, and you also really looked forward, which is what I alluded to in the beginning. You founded a nonprofit known as The SAID Project to bring theater opportunities to students who typically don’t get exposure to the arts and Broadway shows. What is the origin story of your project? Tell us more about it.
Alex: The SAID Project stands for Student Appreciation in Drama. The SAID Project was founded about three years ago when I was watching a news story about underfunded New York City public schools in terms of their performing arts programs. So, I started to research and reach out to these schools in New York to see if there was a way that I could get involved to help out with these theater programs. And I was very surprised to find that a lot of these schools don’t even have theater programs. And when I was calling these schools, they didn’t have people for me to talk to because they didn’t have a theater program, no theater teacher. I decided at that point that I needed to do something about it. That is what became The SAID Project.
We reached out to a couple schools, and I got into contact with the school known as the Young Women’s Leadership School. They have locations all around New York. We started with their Brooklyn location. I went and I viewed the school. The school has amazing areas: they have a stage, they have a music room, they have a dance studio. I was very surprised to find that there was not a single structured class that had to do with theater. I said, this is where we’re going to start, and that’s where we started. Our first event was a panel with the screen and stage, including some familiar names like Gina Gershon, Marcus Scribner from Blackish, and two Broadway cast members from Hamilton and MJ The Musical.
Wharton Global Youth: Your idea here is to bring this panel in front of students who haven’t been exposed to theater, and then what happens from there? Do they learn how things happen behind the scenes?
Alex: Yes, so our first panel was about how these people got from just where they started to where they are now. I think that was very moving for the students. We had a great turnout on our first event, and you could see [other] students peeking in from the hallways, especially because of Marcus Scribner, who’s amazing because he’s a big household name for a lot of these students, since he is in a very great TV show, Blackish. By the end of the panel, we had a bunch of these students coming up to the actors and actresses, and they were asking, how did you do this? How did you do that? One of the cast members, Carina Kay-Louchiey from MJ The Musical and the Hamilton tour, was so impressed with the students that she offered to come back and do a dance master class for Hamilton, and that was our second event. So, it really built itself up. That’s how we started. We now [work with] five schools total [and have had] 10 events. We’ve created six mentorships, [involving] hundreds of students, and we’ve kept our budget under $1,000 total for the duration of the project.
Wharton Global Youth: Wow. And there’s a component here where they also get to attend Broadway shows, correct?
Alex: Absolutely. Some of our other events included going to Hell’s Kitchen, the musical, and Suffs, the musical, both of which included talkbacks and the ability to meet members of the show. Other events included going to the set of the TV show Equalizer, and even getting to meet Queen Latifah, the star of that show, and having a private one-on-one Q&A and being able to learn about what goes into making either these TV shows or these musicals.
“The SAID Project is essentially a business, just the profit is not money. The profit is students being able to get the experiences.” –Alex Felberbaum, founder, The SAID Project
Wharton Global Youth: What do you hope students feel or think after they’ve seen their first live Broadway show?
Alex: After they see their first live Broadway show, it’s the goal of The SAID Project is to [spark] these students’ interest. Even if they’re not interested in performing or in being a part of the film or theater industry, I want them to take away the experience that is the Performing Arts in person — the ability to enjoy and to connect to what’s happening on stage. That’s where I found the majority of what makes me who I am today, and that’s what I want them to take away. I want them to feel connected and feel kind of embalmed into this world of theater that just makes everybody feel so comfortable.
Wharton Global Youth: Alex, I was starstruck looking at the photos on your website, and you just mentioned several names of celebrities whom you’ve met. First of all, have you made those connections and gotten them excited about The SAID Project? Who have you met along the way? How is that an essential piece of what you’re doing?
Alex: In terms of actors and celebrities, Carina and the other members of our panel were amazing and definitely helped us bring a lot of students in. As I went along, I reached out to the marketing managers and producers of these Broadway shows, which helped in securing these tickets. And in terms of Queen Latifah, we got the amazing opportunity to visit that [Equalizer] set. These huge figures like Queen Latifah all love spreading and expanding the knowledge and helping to cater to underserved communities and to students who otherwise wouldn’t get these opportunities. They might even see themselves reflected in the students and want to give these students a chance. That’s really what we’re all about.
Wharton Global Youth: I’d like to talk to you more about those marketing managers, especially as you head to Leadership in the Business World [at Wharton]. You’re clearly business-minded. How have you approached The SAID Project with an entrepreneurial mindset? Things like cold calling — it sounds like you cold-called some of those marketing managers — pitching your ideas, negotiating for tickets. Can you share some stories that illustrate your business approach?
Alex: When I started The SAID Project, I was cold calling a lot of these schools and just picking up the phone [and saying]: Hi, I’m Alex…I want to see if I can help you guys out. It took a little bit of time to get used to the rejection, but I just kept on staying persistent, and that’s what really helped me. As we got to our events, which included going to shows, I just found the phone number for either the marketing managers or the producers, and I’d pick up the phone and be like, I am Alex. I started The SAID Project. Can we see if we can work something out? A lot of the time that ended in either stern or soft “No’s”, and I really needed to push. After lots and lots of pushing, we finally got to the negotiation phase.
My favorite of all of them was probably Suffs, the musical. A week before the show, we had to try to organize the assembling of five students who were of voting age, because that was the condition of getting all 25 tickets to the show for students. And when we got to that point, it was a week out — a business week out, not seven days. So, I had to jump on the phone at school, crouching down on my school’s football field to do these Zoom calls in the middle of the day or between classes. It led to this very transactional approach that required a lot of negotiation.
Wharton Global Youth: I don’t quite understand what you mean about having to get five students of voting age. What was that about?
Alex: The Suffs musical was closing. It was a very popular musical, but their lease of the theater was running up. We wanted to get in because the curriculum of the students we were working with was very close to the [women’s suffrage] movement. Also, it was at the time of the election, so it was a very current topic that we were trying to bring these students into. And of course, it was a hot ticket, so these producers were like: we really want to help, but it’s a very, very tough ticket, and there’s literally no way that we can get you these tickets without paying for them. So, we kept on negotiating, and they finally said, there’s this one donor that is willing to give you these tickets under the condition that at least five of the students are of voting age.
Wharton Global Youth: I see, to fit in with the theme of the musical.
Alex: And even though we are working primarily with high schools, it is hard to pick and choose in terms of ages and even with that, a lot of the seniors are still under the age of 18 and not able to vote. So, it was a very, very tight and complex set of maneuvers that I needed to work out with the school and with the students and the parents, in terms of permission slips and in terms of transportation, that all needed to go into this one event.
Wharton Global Youth: Has networking been an essential part of The SAID Project?
Alex: Absolutely. In the beginning, of course, and towards the expansive timeline of The SAID Project as we expanded into Philadelphia and outside of the New York City area. For example, last summer, I was at EOE, Essentials of Entrepreneurship, and I was wondering, if there was an outreach program at Penn. I found out about The Netter Center, which works with local high schools, so I started connecting with them, and then they connected me with the schools. Just having that connection, whether it’s through that or even through the marketing managers, those are the real connections that help to make The SAID Project function.
Wharton Global Youth: Let’s look at your client side for a moment, the students your organization is impacting. Can you share an example of a student, and what this theater experience has meant to them?
Alex: I remember one student very fondly. I’m going to keep her name private, because I have not discussed this with her and I want to maintain privacy. She went to one of our first schools, the Young Women’s Leadership School of Brooklyn, and she originally showed some interest in filmmaking, the theater industry, and behind-the-scenes aspects. After our first set visit to The Equalizer, she showed a lot more interest in the production side. After that first set visit, Queen Latifah suggested that we start a mentorship program with the costume design and production design union, the local one. We did so and that student became a mentee for that production-design mentorship. Now she’s going to college for filmmaking.
Wharton Global Youth: Oh, wow. So, it really had an influence.
Alex: It did. And just seeing her growth, from having an interest to 100% considering it as a career path made me both proud of what I’m doing, and very proud of what The SAID Project can and would achieve.
Wharton Global Youth: How has theater and by extension The Said Project informed your path as a future business leader? Have you thought about how you will carry this legacy forward?
Alex: The SAID Project has helped boost my negotiation skills and my leadership skills. It is essentially a business and it is an organization, just the profit is not money. The profit is students being able to get the experiences. And so, it helped me with forming an identity in terms of organizational leadership, marketing, pitching, all of that. I really hope that The Said Project continues in that way. I hope to continue it into college and beyond. It’s something that has built me as a person and also built these students. And I think it’s just important to keep this going. We need to create the next generation of theatergoers and theater lovers, because I’m going to be honest, the world of loving theater is slowly, slowly disintegrating. We need to make sure that we keep that alive. It is such an important part of the humanities and culture. We need to keep it alive.
Wharton Global Youth: Why do you think theater is important, especially for students who might not normally have access to it?
Alex: Because theater does many things. For example, it helps with interpersonal skills, it helps with presentational skills. It helps with learning and with storytelling. There was a study done by the WolfBrown agency with the New Victory Theater in New York, which found that students receive multiple learning benefits and cognitive benefits from taking part in and observing and experiencing theater. That study specifically really helped me because I knew that what I was doing had an impact.
Wharton Global Youth: Not everyone has The SAID Project in their lives. What advice do you have for a high school student who’s interested in theater but isn’t sure how to get started or maybe doesn’t have access to these opportunities?
Alex: What I’d say is one YouTube, two [Folger Shakespeare Library] – one for Shakespeare and one for just watching these performances. It’s obviously not going to be the same thing as watching it in person, but being able to appreciate it in any regard is going to help boost your love for theater. And also at school, if you want to start a club, or if you have a couple friends that might be interested in doing it, even just doing an improv club. All of these things can help a student, and all of these things are great ways to get started in theater and get started in acting, or even production design.
Wharton Global Youth: Let’s end with our lightning round. Answer these questions as quickly as you can.
What was your first live Broadway show?
Alex: My first live Broadway show was Mary Poppins.
Wharton Global Youth: Arts and business form a powerful partnership because?
Alex: The arts industry, in any respect performing or visual, is a business venture, and it is a major part of the world of business.
Wharton Global Youth: Something about you that would surprise us?
Alex: I am a student pilot who hopes to one day start an airline.
Wharton Global Youth: What is a specific way that growing up in New York City has shaped you?
Alex: It’s given me amazing access and opportunities in terms of experiencing and being involved in theater.
Wharton Global Youth: What was your last greatest challenge, and how did you persevere?
Alex: I had surgery the same day as I had a math test, and through all the anesthetics, I was able to still pull an A out on the math test.
Wharton Global Youth: Amazing. The best piece of life advice you have received?
Alex: a journey of 1000 miles begins with just one step.
Wharton Global Youth: You are starting your own business-themed talk show. Who is your first guest and what is your first question? My
Alex: My first guest is David Neeleman, the founder and former CEO of JetBlue Airways. My first question is, how did you make a service model that caters so well to the customer?
Wharton Global Youth: Alex, thank you for joining us on Future of the Business World!
Alex: Thank you, Diana,
Hero Image Shot By: Getty Images, Unsplash
Conversation Starters
You are a business consultant for The SAID Project. What strategies can the organization use to build stronger partnerships with industry professionals and other nonprofits like the Netter Center?
Are you a theater kid? How would you answer the question: why is theater so important?
Based on what you’ve learned here, how can young entrepreneurs identify and address gaps in community resources? Use a case study as a your guide. What issue — like lack of access to the performing arts — would you or are you tackling? Share your story in the comment section of this article.