August 2022

August Topic: What is your favorite playlist and what does it say about you?

By Jamie Allen Bishop with Jamie Allen Bishop Coaching

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When it comes to music, I am an emotional basket case. I laugh. I dance. I cry. And possibly all three during the same song. I love everything about the journey music takes me on with the storytelling aspects of lyrics, the highs and lows of the chord combinations, and the emotional influence a thoughtful composition can inspire in me. In fact, I regularly enjoy ALL the different genres of musical inspiration. (I mean that literally… all of them!) You can catch me, singing, shaking, and tapping my toes to the beats of just about any song ever made.

But if I had to choose one type of musical playlist as the only type of music I could listen to for the rest of my life (much to the horror of my brother and my teen), my heart belongs to the theatre.

I love everything about the theatre. I love the sets, the props, the lighting, the costumes, the choreography, and the (sometimes overly dramatic) acting, but mostly I love the music. There’s something so fun about being fully immersed into the experience. The stories move me at a soul level, and the music centered around those stories invokes an emotion I am often too hesitant to express. I allow myself to become emotionally invested in a theatrical performance, and the music makes all the difference in the world.

The first live performance I attended was at The Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, California, in 1979 to see Sandy Duncan star in Peter Pan. The event was incredible. We dressed up like we were going to a red-carpet event. After all, The Academy Awards were held at that very venue. When we approached the building, we were treated like royalty – doors held for us by white-gloved men in suits, kindly women handed out programs at the door, and the smell of the building was rich with history. I remember looking down into “the pit” and being in a state of awe over witnessing the orchestra tuning up their instruments. (One of them winked at me – I was 8 years old at the time.) I could feel the notes dance through the air, and when the actors came onto the stage and they were children (like me), my whole world felt alive with possibility.

I still get that feeling of wonder and hope when I am magically transported into the scene and onto the stage. I am mesmerized by the whole experience. A few years after my Pantages visit, I started acting on stage in that very play – Peter Pan. I can still recite the entire script by heart, and I know every lyric to every song – more than forty years later. The theatre fills my soul with warmth and tenderness. It makes me feel that sense of safety and serenity you might get watching a sleeping baby. The connection between the storyline and the music fills me up in a way that nothing else ever has. And the musical score brings me right back to each show – all 222 of them (and counting).

What does this playlist say about me? It says I am a storyteller. It says I feel the story’s emotional intention at a deep and soulful level. It says I am a theatre addict. It also showcases the idea that I am, like so many people in the world, a beautiful dreamer who finds the connection in us all through storytelling.

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