Biography of Sean Devney

I was born in New York City on May 4, 1958. Both of my parents were performers - my mother, Lillian Ryan - was an opera singer from Smith Falls, Ontario, Canada. My father - Edward Devney - was an actor, singer and pianist. I started drawing when I was a year old and I started writing stories when I was ten. I love music and my father wanted me to be a singer but I was too shy for that. In the summer of 1991, I was invited to join a new theater company called the AWD (Actors, Writers and Directors) Theater Company and I used to write and direct for the company. Jan Stevens, the founder of the company, asked me to write a play and I did - it became "The Jackie Simon Show!" - a rather over the top satire of talk shows. "The Jackie Simon Show!" was first performed in March of 1992.The play is based upon Joey Buttafuoco and his lovely wife Mary Joe and Joey's teenage mistress, Amy Fisher. It has real life characters from Long Island, such as Sal, who would kidnap young girls and hold them hostage in a dungeon buried in his backyard. He would rape these young girls and eventually let them go. He was, I believe, somehow related to Joey. This all took place in a small town on Long Island and as they say, you can't make this stuff up. So, from this unholy mess I created the characters for the play and we had a blast performing it. The play was only scheduled to run for eight performances but it would've run a lot longer than that. It was a surprise hit. I have since written other plays but this is the one that people keep asking me about. It's a lot of fun and I would love to have it staged once again. But - be warned - it is not for the faint of heart.