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Gerald Fierst: Actor, Storyteller, Celebrant
Fierst sees himself, first and foremost, as a storyteller. "When I went to summer camp, I would tell stories to my bunk mates as we fell asleep. As I grew up, I went to Yale College where I became the chairman of the Yale Dramat. I began to understand that plays and storytelling are cousins." A working actor, Fierst had also begun teach children creative dramatics, coming to "understand how we make stories when we playact. Then, one day, when my son was in second grade, his teacher Lora Cooper said to me, 'You are really a storyteller. You ought to find out about storytelling.' " Fierst followed her advice to go to Tennessee where the National Association for the Perpetuation and Preservation of Storytelling had an annual conference. There he discovered "I had been doing as a friend, as a father, and as an actor, what people had done forever and ever." He started to call himself a storyteller. He told Jewish stories out of his own tradition, world folklore and stories he wrote. He became artistic director of the Jewish Storytelling Center at the 92nd Street Y in New York City and Co-director of the MidAtlantic Storytellers’ Gathering. As a member of the National Yakkers Theater Ensemble, he is currently performing MOUTH an original storytelling performance piece. "I worked at schools all over the United States and even in England. I worked at museums, theaters, and conferences with people of all ages. I became a very good storyteller by telling and telling and telling." Called to Celebrancy To his many callings, Gerald Fierst has added yet another: he has become a Celebrant, a creator of specialized civil ceremonies for weddings and other important occasions. Celebrancy is a new and rapidly growing profession in the U.S that traces its origins to Australia where it began about 25 years ago. Celebrants perform civil ceremonies for a wide variety of rites of passage, and the profession has taken root in this country with the creation of the Celebrant USA Foundation™ in Montclair, NJ, where Fierst lives and works. He became interested in celebrancy when he met Dally Messenger III, grandson of an Australian rugby star and the originator of celebrancy in Australia. Messenger had come to the United States to help establish the Celebrant USA Foundation. Trained in the Australian curriculum and a certified celebrant in Australia as well as in the U.S., Fierst began his practice two years ago and performs 35 or 40 weddings a year. Celebrancy is "a very personalized service." To ensure that he and prospective clients are a good fit, Fierst has a complementary meeting with the engaged couple. After he is hired, he will spend two or more hours in a detailed interview, gathering the information that will become the script for the ceremony itself. Performing the ceremony brings together all Fierst's skills as an actor and performer. Although every couple's story is unique, "Ceremonies follow a certain narrative pattern," he says. As he watches a couple walking down the aisle toward him, "I never get over the feeling: I'm changing their lives!" To perform wedding ceremonies In the U.S., celebrants must also be ordained. Graduates of the Celebrant USA Foundation are ordained through a non-denominational clergy organization based in Florida. Celebrants officiate at and co-create personalized ceremonies such as weddings, marriages, commitments, renewal of vows, baby welcomings and adoptions, coming of age, step-family tributes, new dwellings, birthdays, graduations, survivor tributes, job transitions, memorials, funerals/end of life tributes, divorce, special achievements and civic and corporate events. According to Celebrant USA: "The Civil Celebrant's mission is to create a ceremony that reflects your needs, beliefs, cultural background, values and tastes." Fees for weddings range from $600-800. Celebrancy is a terrific choice for later life careers, Fierst believes. "Celebrants have the power of a priest and magician," he says. "As we get older, we have a natural appreciation for life's passages. Younger people are drawn to someone with maturity and presence" to officiate at life changing rituals. What's next for Gerald Fierst? "I've become more interested in traditions and folklore, both as a story teller and celebrant, and possibly as an author." Clearly, his own story is far from completed. Next Steps Celebrant USA Foundation:
International College of Civil
Celebrants (Distance learning)
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Gerald
Fierst, 58,
began his theatrical career
at Yale and went on to perform in the streets of New York City as a member
of the celebrated New York Free Theater. He is co-founder of the Whole
Theater Company, a LORT theater which produced in Montclair, NJ, for 18
seasons, in the course of which he acted and served as Director of
Education. He is a recipient of a New Jersey State Council Fellowship in
Playwriting for his musical Dancing With Miracles based on Yaffa
Eliach’s Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust. Fierst has also done voice overs
for animation, worked in television including the daytime drama As the
World Turns and the children’s classic Romper Room, and acted
in feature films including Roll Over, Trading Places, and
Kidnapped.