Jane Coyle

Playwright

Jane Coyle was born in Wales and has been based for many years in Northern Ireland. She is an award-winning writer, arts journalist and critic, who has worked across print and broadcast media platforms in the UK, Ireland and Europe.

She is a critic for The Stage, the UK’s long-established, weekly newspaper and website, covering the entertainment industry and, particularly, the performing arts. She is a regular arts and cultural affairs contributor to The Irish Times, Ireland’s daily newspaper of record and an arts commentator for BBC Northern Ireland. She is a member of the judging panel of the annual UK Theatre Awards.

A fluent French speaker, Jane studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and has a degree in English and French from the University of Leicester. She began her literary career as an editorial assistant at Faber & Faber publishing house in London.

She worked in television for twenty years and set up and ran the film and drama development unit of Waddell Media, one of Ireland’s leading television production companies. She has written scripts for numerous television and radio programmes, dramas and documentaries. She has written three feature-length screenplays, as well as six stage plays. She is co-librettist for the opera adaptation of her play The Suitcase.

Jane has taught classes in theatre criticism at Queen’s University Belfast and regularly takes writing workshops. For twelve years, she was a Board member and Chair of DU Dance (NI), Ireland’s leading dance development company, which has creative partnerships in Germany and Austria. She is a director and co-founder of Powerstone Entertainment (www.powerstonefilms.com) in Belfast and is responsible its creative slate.