James Twyman: Saint Francis Goes to Broadway
James Twyman is known around the world as The Peace Troubadour for his concerts in war-torn countries like Iraq, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and on a hill overlooking a Syrian village held by ISIS, a concert that prompted Bill Maher to call Twyman the “idiot folk singer from Portland.” He’s the NY Times bestselling author of sixteen books, the producer or director of seven award-winning films and a Billboard Chart bestselling musician. But it’s his love of St. Francis of Assisi that keeps drawing him back to a life of simple wisdom. OM Times sat down with The Peace Troubadour to ask him about his latest book Giovanni and the Camino of Saint Francis, as well as his upcoming off-Broadway musical Brother Sun, Sister Moon.
An Interview with James Twyman: Saint Francis Goes to Broadway
OMTimes: When did you first feel this connection with Saint Francis of Assisi, and why has he inspired you for most of your life?
James Twyman: First of all, every Catholic child falls in love with what I call the “bird bath” Saint Francis, or the saint of animals and nature. In fact, that’s how most people know him – the patron saint of ecology. And for me, it was no different. It wasn’t until I met a Franciscan brother from Chicago that I finally decided to follow the saint from Assisi. I left home right after high school and entered the order, and even though I was only there for two years, it left an indelible impression on me.
Then in 1994, a friend gave me a sheet of paper that had the peace prayers from the 12 major religions of the world printed on it. They were first prayed together in Assisi when the leaders of all the religions came there in 1986. They chose Assisi because Saint Francis is loved by people from almost every religion, mainly because he was the first inter-religious peacemaker. When I read them for the first time, I had a remarkable experience – I heard music and picked up my guitar and played along. Within one hour, I arranged all 12 of the peace prayers to music and decided I wanted to travel as a penniless troubadour sharing them for the rest of my life. I went to Bosnia in 1995, which was my first trip into a war zone to do the concert, and ended up writing my first book about the experience – Emissary of Light. The book did very well and the next thing I knew I was no longer penniless. Twenty-five years later, I’m being drawn back to that original inspiration – traveling across the country with no money and no idea how I’m getting from place to place, or where I’ll eat or sleep, completely trusting in the generosity of others traveling to New York to do the Brother Sun, Sister Moon musical. It feels like I’ve come full circle.
OMTimes: Why did you feel it was important to travel across the U.S. with no money or plan?
James Twyman: Because that’s how Saint Francis would have done it, and I wanted to find a way to imitate him. Anyone can perform a big musical in New York, get a nice apartment in the city and pretend to be a star, but that’s the opposite of how he would have acted. That’s why my friend Bill Free and I decided to start in Portland and travel across the U.S., performing the musical in 15 different places along the way, with nothing in our pockets, but faith. I had to come up with rules for the journey, such as taking no money and never flying from one city to another. We can accept rides, or someone can buy us a bus or a train ticket.
In many cases, we’re choosing to stay in homeless shelters or even on the streets with the homeless, all because that’s what Saint Francis would have done. He wanted to identify with the poorest of the poor, much as Mother Teresa did in modern times. And when we get to New York, we’ll spend time each day passing out free tickets to the homeless to attend the show, and we’ll have a soup line before each performance for ticket holders as well as guests. I don’t think there’s ever been a Broadway show that actually invited the homeless to attend, but once again, that’s what St. Francis would have done so that’s what we’re going to do as well.
OMTimes: Aren’t you afraid something might happen to you along the way?
James Twyman: It may sound crazy, but the thought doesn’t even enter into my mind. I remember when I was 21, I was hitchhiking and got mugged. But who’s going to mug Saint Francis? That’s pretty bad karma.
OMTimes: Are you pretending to be St. Francis on the journey?
James Twyman: It would be better to say that I’m stepping into his character for the whole two months, much like a method actor stays in character the entire time they’re shooting a film. I heard that when Daniel Day-Lewis played Lincoln, he never left character the entire shoot, and when it was over it took several days to get his Irish accent back. My goal is to think like Saint Francis and do my best to come from the same place he comes from, but I’m not going to tell people that I’m him. It’s all internal and I can’t wait to see how different I am after the New York shows.
OMTimes: Can you remember what inspired you to write the musical in the first place?
James Twyman: I definitely remember. It was Bruce Springsteen. He did a one-man show called Springsteen on Broadway and it was released on Netflix. As I watched the show, I wondered if Saint Francis could do the same thing – tell the story of his life through music. Then I read something else that inspired me – a quote I read from Vladimir Lenin of all people. He once wrote that the revolution he helped start failed and what Russia really needed was 10 Saint Francis of Assisi’s. That came from an atheist! If this little man from Assisi was able to move someone like Lenin, maybe there’s something for us to learn in the modern world. I remember thinking: “I’ll be number 10…who will stand up and be the first nine.”
OMTimes: On the way across the U.S., you’ll be stopping in 15 cities to share the musical. How did you pick the cities?
James Twyman: First of all, I’m not sure why I decided to travel across the U.S. in the middle of winter with practically nothing but the clothes on our backs. There will probably be times when we’ll have to hitchhike because we don’t have rides. For some reason, it felt appropriate even though many people think it’s insane. A lot of people thought Saint Francis was insane as well, especially at the beginning of his ministry. It took several years for people to realize there was something deeper happening, and I think it will be the same for Bill and me. We could take the easy route and it would be fine, but that wouldn’t be as inspiring. The first thing I did was decide on a general route then see if there was a church or a convent or any other place that would be interested in hosting the event. They were all intrigued by the idea and before long, we had a straight line across the country.
OMTimes: Isn’t there something unusual about the event in Peoria, Illinois?
James Twyman: Yes, there is. When I was in seventh grade, my family moved to central Illinois and we left when I was entering tenth grade. At the time, we attended the local Catholic church and my brothers and sisters, and I attended Catholic school. I was an altar boy and that’s where I had my confirmation. It’s also where I had a dramatic mystical experience one day during mass. I was looking at a statue of Saint Francis and it felt like he looked right at me. It was so powerful and I knew that I wanted to follow him one day. I tried to tell my parents and a few others, but they said it was just my imagination. But I never forgot about it.
A few weeks ago, I received a message from the pastor of Holy Family Catholic Church in Peoria. He said that he had read my new book and heard about the musical, then asked if it was possible to stop at the church on my way to Chicago. I couldn’t believe it…because Holy Family was my former parish, the church where I had the experience. It was like Saint Francis reaching out to me again from the same place he first made an impact.
OMTimes: Were you able to fit it into the schedule?
James Twyman: Most definitely. It fit perfectly. There was no way I was going to miss out on an opportunity like that!
OMTimes: Your new book Giovanni and the Camino of St. Francis is a modern retelling of the life of the saint’s life, but it’s also a story about a woman who seems to have given up on life. What inspired you to write that?
James Twyman: I had actually decided I wouldn’t write another book since I didn’t think I had anything left to say – unless one knocked on the door of my heart in a way I couldn’t ignore. And that’s exactly what happened. There’s a trail that leads from a monastery in Tuscany called La Verna all the way to Assisi. Saint Francis walked that trail many times and today pilgrims travel the 110 miles to Assisi just as they do the Camino de Santiago in Spain. The first time I walked the Italian Camino was in 2012. I started playing with this story about a woman from Portland named Anna who’s had a pretty tough life. She was actually born in Assisi but was forced to move to the U.S. when she was 17 because she was pregnant. She never returned and now in her late fifties, she decides to walk the Camino – but she doesn’t want to hear anything about God since she’s an unbeliever. That’s when she meets this passionate young Italian named Giovanni who can’t seem to stop talking about God and Saint Francis. They become Camino partners and very slowly, with his stories about Francis, Giovanni breaks through and Anna has great healing.
Continue to Page 2 of the Interview with James Twyman
