Born in1968, Michael Muthu is one of the most active theatre personalities in Chennai today.

With no formal training, Michael has been in theatre for 13 years, starting with Dipankar Mukherjee after his Class XII, at the Loyola Theatre Society during his first two years of college, and in 1991 as founder of Boardwalkers. His acclaimed productions include God, Biloxi Blues, The Hairy Ape, Sleuth, The Pied Piper of Hamlin, and most recently Jesus Christ Superstar.

Michael hopes to start a Theatre school in Chennai sometime soon, for both school and college students. He will also be directing English films shortly.

His other interests include music (he plays the guitar), old cars and bikes. He is a proud owner of a 1952 B.S.A. motorcycle. A religious person, Michael has Jesus Christ as his role model. His strongest influence has been the support of his parents, who are "the pillars in his life".

This "Live and let live" director has a lot up his sleeve for English Theatre in Chennai, so don't miss out any of it.

Leading film & theatre artist and playwright, Sattanathapuram Venkataraman Shekher (better known as S Ve Shekher) has for decades kept audiences in splits with his irrepressible brand of humour.

He made his debut on the silver screen in Balachander's 'Varumaiyin Niram Sigappu'. Since then he has acted in over 70 feature films.

His theatrical talents brought him to the stage. He started his own drama troupe Natakhapriya, after a successful drama tour to Singapore. Since then he has held sway over Tamil theatre audiences, not only in India but also abroad.

His television shows on Doordarshan, when satellite television was still unheard of in Chennai, were so popular they were re-telecast several times over. They are Nam Kudumam and Vannakolangal.

He is in the Limca Book of Records for staging eight full-length plays from 7:47 am of one day to 1:49 pm the next day.

Among the several awards he has won are Best Drama Troupe Award and Best All India Programme Producer Award for four consecutive years from Radio & Television Advertisers & Producers Association (RAPA).

|