First Violin

“A visionary documentary of a brown man’s psyche and a razor-sharp conversation with himself, and us, poeticizing the inner and outer madness of navigating today’s America.” — Stew (Tony-award winner, “Passing Strange”)

First Violin is a solo performance piece investigating cultural inheritance and musical evolution. In discovering the oldest known ancestor of the violin and its connection to the Hindu epic poem The Ramayana, Sean Devare uses spoken word poetry, live music, and narration to chronicle his search for, and recreation of the fabled first violin, invented by the demon(ized) King Rāvana. Against a backdrop of personal and political turmoil in New York City, he reinvents the violin the only way he knows how.

As a first generation Indian American of mixed descent, Devare explores and interrogates his contradicting identities and the gray areas between Western and Eastern classical traditions. First Violin speaks to conflicting feelings on cultural appropriation in examining the legacies of iconic rock musicians. Devare undertakes a journey in both musical and personal revelations, re-appropriating orientalist artistic practices to give a new voice to the first generation Asian-American experience. Within this revelation, he illuminates the consequences of limited narratives both past and present.