Amazing Journey Musical: Bio / Info

The Amazing Journey of Juan Diego

Music, Lyrics, and Book
by LUCE AMEN

Amazing Journey Musical

THE AMAZING JOURNEY OF JUAN DIEGO is the inspirational new musical written by composer/lyricist/playwright LUCE AMEN, native of San Antonio and in recent years a resident of New York City. It is the ageless story of a humble person's extraordinary walk to greatness. This production, springing from the Mexican story of the Aztec Juan Diego and the beautiful young Mary, Lady of Guadalupe, takes place five hundred years ago on a hill overlooking Mexico City. Three dynamic cultures are intertwined in this musical: Aztec, Spanish, and Mexican.

Mary the Mother of Jesus appears to the converted Catholic native Juan Diego. She speaks and shocks him with a seemingly impossible request.

This story of Mary (Santa Maria) and the humble peasant Juan Diego is the single most unifying spiritual and cultural phenomenon in the history of Mexico - with universal significance - a story of faith, courage, and perseverance in the face of an electrifying challenge.

Twenty surprisingly varied songs, including pop, rock, contemporary flamenco, Mariachi, and ballads, fill the drama with beautiful, moving, and memorable music.

The production AMAZING JOURNEY required five years of writing, including three trips to Mexico City, with research in Mexico and the United States. This served to augment and deepen the composer/lyricist/writer Amen's previous awareness of the Guadalupe story which she had grown up with as a child and young adult in San Antonio.

Over the past two years, the music and story have met with enthusiastic audience response in one-woman and small-ensemble presentations at twenty-one performances in Mexico City, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, and New York City. Because of this positive reception by a variety of audiences in these locations, AMAZING JOURNEY is now in the process of being prepared for development as a two-hour musical production in two acts, with a cast of 10-15 actors, singers, and dancers.

The AMAZING JOURNEY CD is now available, featuring eighteen songs from the production, with a rich array of male and female vocals and full instrumental accompaniment. Click on the MUSIC page for more information on the CD.

Check this website for the latest news as we progress towards full development of this AMAZING JOURNEY!

* * *

HOW THIS MUSICAL CAME ABOUT
One day in 1995, Luce Amen walked into a record store in Texas, where her albums were on sale. While she was chatting with the salesman, he handed her a small book . On its cover was a picture of Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe. This was his own personal volume. He presented it to Amen and said, “You should write about this.” She took the book, thanked the salesman, and left, wondering how she would ever be able to return the book to him. When the playwright arrived back home in New York the next day, she put the book on a shelf.

Some time later, Amen’s two-year-old son pulled the book from the shelf and opened it. She glanced at a few of the pages and felt it was time to read it so she could return it to the man who had given it to her. She read the story and found that it had an unexpected, rather compelling interest for her. Amen started to take notes and, over the next weeks, months, and years, found herself reading more books about the subject, writing songs, and developing scenes for the drama.

Amen states, “I was very busy being a mom and professional musician, so I could only work on the project in bits and pieces. Sometimes weeks went by with time for only ten or twenty-minute segments to give to the project, and other times I was able to carve out longer periods, usually late at night. In fact, I wrote one of the show's most popular songs, 'I’ll Always Care for You,' on a plane, flying very early in the morning out of Atlanta after performing at a gala the night before. I’ve learned to carry music staff paper and pencils with me, because you never know when you might come up with some new lyrics or a melody."

"Growing up in the Southwest, I was familiar with the Guadalupe image, in churches and prevalent in many forms throughout the cities and towns in that part of the U.S., as well as in Mexico. But I didn't become aware of the details and the universal impact of the story until I started research on this project. Through these past years of working on it, I kept getting signs along the way to continue, even though I often didn’t see how I could find the time to do it. This project wouldn’t let me rest until I saw it through to completion.”