Carol Fisher Linn
You know there’s always a backstory when you hear that someone is told this: “You better call your mother.” Think back to perhaps a time in your life when someone told you that, or you told it to someone who just pulled a major oopsey. The old, “get to your mom before someone else does”. Let’s find out a little bit about Mitchell Anderson and why he is coming home to Jamestown at the Robert H. Jackson Center (305 E. Fourth Street) to perform a one-man cabaret-style show in September called “You Better Call Your Mother.”
Mitchell Anderson is a character actor and a chef, who was born (August 1961) and raised in Jamestown by his civic-minded mom and Princeton graduate businessman dad. The Anderson family had been a fixture in the Jamestown community since the late 1800’s, involved in good works, philanthropy and many facets of community life and business. One of six children, Anderson attended school in Jamestown (Jamestown HS) and Williams College, a private college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, sited as a “Western counterpart” to Yale and Harvard (Wikipedia). Anderson then left this rich environment to move on to Juilliard, one of the most prestigious performing arts schools in the world. As he told this writer in a telephone conversation, “With my family’s support and encouragement I was well positioned to succeed.”
Hollywood beckoned. Starting in 1984 he appeared in films and television with an interlude of fifteen years when he moved to Atlanta to be with his partner, now husband of seven years, hair stylist, Richie Arpino (they’ve been together for 26 years!). (From his press release: The actor, who many first knew from Doogie Howser MD, Party of Five, The Karen Carpenter Story and Relax, It’s Just Sex, started his professional career as an actor while the AIDS crisis was raging in a very homophobic Hollywood and being out in Tinseltown was still the exception.)
It was in Atlanta that he decided to continue live theater but also follow another calling, that of cooking and making people happy through food. He opened MetroFresh and turns out wonderful meals (https://metrofreshatl.com) while continuing to act. In the kitchen by 4:30am most days, he and his staff turn out three meals a day, 7/7, for over 300-450 people in his 2500 square foot/100 seat building. Lunch is his biggest, featuring healthy salads and satisfying soups. “I love my second career and love feeding and nourishing people.”
Now, here’s what happened to change his life. In 1996, while attending GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Media Awards for his work in TV’s Party of Five, he (unscripted) revealed he was gay. He already had a history and working relationship with organizations like GLAAD, having volunteered in this arena for years. It was after this disclosure at this event that someone came up to him and said the words, “You better call your mother”.
Although his family, close friends, and many of his business colleagues knew he was gay, the public did not, as evidenced by the question he got on the red carpet from the press … “what’s it like for a straight man to play a gay character?” At that very life changing moment, he took a moment to assess himself, acknowledging he needed to be truthful to his public audience. It was time; society had changed, and he felt free and happy at that moment. He had been doing a great deal of political work for years, speaking and fighting for justice, gay marriage, equality, and acceptance, and now he could publicly own the cause. Not as politically active these days, his everyday life in Georgia with Richie is his activism. Meanwhile, the restaurant and his career managed to survive Covid, which was the impetus to write his story for the one-man show you are invited to attend. At 62, he feels his story is timely and important. After two forty-five-minute acts, his goal is to show how we can come full circle. Says Anderson, “no matter what our relationships have been in life, particularly with our parents, we can all hopefully get to a point where we get to be happy and continue to learn things.”
The cabaret tells a story of an over-achieving kid who wanted to please everyone, who finally discovered that the reason he always felt different was because he was gay (a topic which was not in the 1970’s vernacular). Although he always felt love and acceptance from his family, they had their struggles which he generously shares in his dialogue and song choices. Bottom line, this 62-year-old gentleman, with two successful careers in his life, brings hope, tears, and laughter to any audience as he shares how he discovered the only way to a full, happy, and productive life was to claim and celebrate ALL of who he is.
The show is a fundraiser promoted by Fr. Luke Fodor at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church (Mitchell’s family church) which will benefit Jamestown Pride and restoration of the AIDS Memorial Park, with 7 p.m. performances Sept. 15 and 16 at the Robert H, Jackson Center’s – Cappa Theatre. Tickets are available via Brown Paper Tickets: $30 general and $100 VIP