About Joan Lane

Producer. Writer. Director.

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Joan Lane has worked in arts management and production for over 30 years and best known for developing and packaging the film, The King’s Speech. She had been sent the stage play by its writer, David Seidler, who adapted the play to the iconic film it has become.

Originally trained as a Speech and Language Therapist, with a background as a music scholar and vocal consultant, Joan has worked variously in music, film, and television, which eventually led to her primary work of editing scripts and screenplays. Her theatre company, Wild Thyme Productions, has toured six innovative productions of Shakespeare’s plays in the UK and Germany (including the first all-female cast of Hamlet) and mounted world premiere showcases and readings of new plays and musicals in London.

A vocal consultant for the BBC, Joan was involved with the Royal Opera House performance of The Little Prince, and with other iconic productions and projects. Joan has worked on many plays at the National Theatre and toured co-productions with ATG, PW Productions, and the Pleasance Theatre, and since 2018, has been the resident Judge on the Kenneth Branagh New Drama Awards.

She is a regular Lecturer and Mentor on the renowned Rocaberti Castle Writers’ Retreats (https://rocabertiwriters.com/retreats) working alongside acclaimed American film colleagues. Along with her LA producing partner, she is packaging several screenplays for major film companies, all of which were developed at the retreats.

In late 2019, Joan was brought on board to rewrite the screenplay of the film, 1242 Gateway to the West, which is due out later this year. Most recently she developed a nine-part TV series about Benjamin Franklin with author Michael Koski, and co-edited his book, The Secret Life of Benjamin Franklin, which just this month (October 2024) has become available in bookshops. Stepping back into theatre, she has recently workshopped a new musical set in 1917 and based on true and historical events covering mass immigration to America from war-torn Europe