Layne Coleman

Layne Coleman is a Canadian actor, playwright and theatre director, most noted as a former artistic director of Theatre Passe Muraille. Originally from North Battleford, Saskatchewan, he first became prominent as a co-founder and artistic director of the 25th Street Theatre in Saskatoon in the 1980s.

Career

Directing He briefly stepped in as interim artistic director of Theatre Passe Muraille in 1991 following the departure of Brian Richmond, holding the role for about a year before he was succeeded by Susan Serran in early 1992; he stepped in again as interim artistic director in 1997 after Serran left, and was named the permanent artistic director the following year. Michael Healey's The Drawer Boy, the first play he booked for the theatre, became one of the most critically and commercially popular Canadian plays of the decade. Coleman held this role with Theatre Passe Muraille until 2007.

In addition to 25th Street Theatre and Theatre Passe Muraille, he has also directed plays for Factory Theatre, Canadian Stage Company and the National Arts Centre. Ready for Slaughter, Best of Both Worlds, A Matter of Sex, The Marriage Bed, Glory! Glory! and Giant Mine; the television series Harvest, Night Heat, Street Legal, E.N.G., Wind at My Back and This Is Wonderland; and the theatrical films Humongous and Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe.

Writing As a playwright, his plays have included Blue City Slammers, Tijuana Cure and Highway 63.

Coleman co-wrote the screenplays for the film adaptation of Blue City Slammers (1987) and The Shape of Rex (2013), with the latter film serving as his film directorial debut.

Awards He received several Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations for his performances in The Al Cornell Story, Public Lies, As I Lay Dying and The Walls of Africa. He has won two honorary Doras, including the George Luscombe Award for mentorship in 2005 and the Silver Ticket for outstanding contributions to the development of Canadian theatre.

Personal life He was married to writer Carole Corbeil before her death in 2000; his theatrical play Tijuana Cure is about her treatment for and death of cancer. Their daughter, Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman, is an actor and playwright.