We recently connected with Dorothy Bishop and have shared our conversation below.

Dorothy , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I always knew that ultimately I did not want to work a “support job” that was out of my field of music and entertainment. When I was pursuing opera as a lyric soprano, I soon realized that the odds were very much against a full time career in this country. I had a great support job as a legal assistant and it was fairly flex. So I was lucky. But I still hated working 9-5 ish (with breaks) to do an opera (which worked out to about 3 times a year in the USA). My choices were to take a gamble and move to Germany ($$$$) where opera companies flourish or stay and reinvent. I chose the latter. In the early 2000’s pop opera became a new fad. Sarah Brightman, il Divo, the 3 tenors, etc all became hugely popular and I saw that the luxury cruise ships were flying in acts for this kind of show. So I built one. There was a lot of trial and error and it was not easy! But the pay was decent and eventually my show was booked on beautiful ships such as the Queen Mary 2 and Regent 7 Seas and Azamara. I saw the world and when I was on land (my contracts were short 1-3 weeks) I did my “dance opera” shows in the gay dance clubs. I also had a secondary gig doing Sarah Palin look alike work. 😂😂😂. But that’s another story!!! For 10 years I traveled the world and earned my living as a guest entertainer with my pop opera show. Eventually this started fading out and I knew it was time to reinvent again. I could always do singing impressions and I saw that ships were leaning towards tribute acts. I wasn’t sure I wanted this life anymore because it pulled me away from my friends and family and I was tired of the politics on ships. (It’s a male dominated industry and it could be really unfair to women – it is what it is – I was getting tired of it). So I reinvented again and built The Dozen Divas Show. It’s a comedy impersonation show where I tribute and parody 12 of the greatest female singing icons. I change costumes on stage, there are multi media diva duets, I sing live, and I often have guests from NYC night life including NY icon Michael Musto (CNN, Village Voice, author) I also book it out of town. It’s been a blast. In addition I am a part time vocal coach with AMDA, a professional 2 year training program for young singers. It’s been amazing and creative. I feel very fulfilled as an artist right now. And my show changes every time so I am constantly writing new material.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Come see my show at The Triad Theater NYC!!!! Tickets are at triadnyc.com!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I celebrate women and I celebrate older women. Icons who have survived all sorts of battles Cher, Madonna, Dolly, Barbra, Liza. The list goes on. There is a deeper tribute going on despite the fact that it’s comedy and I do take little jabs at the divas. But mostly it’s done with love and respect. I love when the show makes people laugh and forget about their troubles. But every now and then a woman sees the deeper meaning of the show. Which is “hell yeah! These women survived abuse, misogyny, ageism, death of loved ones, motherhood and they are still here rocking it!!!” (Most of them. I do a few that have crossed over – Judy Garland, sometimes Joan Rivers)

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.DorothyBishop.com
• Instagram: DozenDivas
• Facebook: The Dozen Divas Show
• Youtube: Dorothy Bishop
• Other: Tiktok – Dozen Divas

Image Credits
Rex Lott