Layne has spent a lifetime as an actor, playwright, director and producer in the world of Canadian theatre in a career that has played out on three continents. His accomplishments in Canadian theatre are legendary; he has been a new play creator in the Canadian theatre community for over three decades. He was a long-time Artistic Director of Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto, Canada's oldest alternative theatre, which has produced over five hundred new Canadian plays during its decades of existence.

Layne was a resident screenwriter at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto shortly after its founding by director Norman Jewison.  He received the Rita Davies Award from the Toronto Arts Council for contributions to the arts in Toronto. He also was nominated for a National Magazine Award for his non-fiction piece entitled Oasis of Hope for the Walrus magazine, which he then adapted into a play; it subsequently was nominated for a Best New Play Dora award in Toronto after its premiere. 

Upon leaving Theatre Passe Muraille Layne was presented with The Silver Ticket Award for lifetime achievement by the Toronto Alliance For The Performing Arts. He is currently writing a non-fiction book entitled Desire, about male crisis in middle age, as well as working on a new screenplay with Bill Hominuke. The Shape of Rex marks Layne’s film debut as co-writer/director/producer.

Layne’s most recent theatre directing credits in Toronto were for The Coal Mine production of Motherfucker With A Hat, and Hooked at Theatre Passe Muraille. Both productions received Dora Best Acting awards. Last summer he directed The Company of Angels in Annapolis Royal, N.S. in a fusion of dance and theatre production called Lighted Rooms. As an actor, Layne recently starred in Toronto in Tarragon Theatre’s Peace River Country, and in Freud at The Harold Green Theatre. He also appeared in Prairie Nurse at the Factory Theatre.