BIOGRAPHY

Harvey Forbes Fierstein was born on June 6, 1954 as the youngest son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants’, handkerchief manufacturer, Irving Fierstein and school librarian, Jacqueline Harriet Gilbert, in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York. Fierstein was encouraged, from a young age, to attend cultural events in New York City, therefore developing a true love and appreciation for the arts and especially for Broadway shows, as he and his brother attended many Saturday matinees. When Fierstein came out to his family at age thirteen, his liberal and open-minded family accepted him with open arms (Rapp) (Fisher).
.....Fierstein began his own career as a performer at age sixteen, as a 270-lb Ethel Merman impersonator, at a gay club in Manhattan’s East Village. According to James Fisher, of American Dramatists, Harvey believed “drag could be a way for a gay man to be himself” (Fisher). With aspiration to become a painter, Fierstein attended the Pratt Institute, where he began his writing career. It was here that he earned a Ford Grant to work with the La Mama Experimental Theater Workshop in 1979, which launched his career in the theater world as both an actor and a writer. His breakthrough came with his three one act plays, combined to be The Torch Song Trilogy, first presented off-Broadway in 1981.Today Fierstein’s achievements as a writer, performer and gay rights activist are numerous and influential. Currently, Fierstein is playing Teyve in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway (Rapp).