Home About

Whodini Art Academy

At Whodini, we strive to revive art that was buried by the sands of time.

We connect with all walks of life using theatre and music as medium to shape opinions and help form ideas about society, life and the magic it does. We aim to inspire future generation to appreciate ancient lost art forms and strive to keep it alive.

Overview

Conceived with a vision to make art accessible for everybody, Whodini Art Academy attempts to break the boundaries of age and gender. All art forms deserve appreciation, and we believe that Art transforms people. The connection of art and nature to nurture living beings is noteworthy. Our unique techniques and methods of teaching theatre and art has aided in the psychological and physiological development of a child. Over the years, we have scripted, directed creative English, Tamil and Bilingual plays and trained children to perform on stage . Our academy emphasizes on holistic learning in theatre. Children are exposed to different dimensions of theatre including costume designing, make-up and art direction. This grooms children to get the hang of intricacies in a theatre production from a very young age. This way, we make theatre a space of equality that unfolds the concept of non-discrimination. We believe that involvement in theatre develops children’s personality as a whole. The academy also steers the children’s interest into the nuances of theatre including script writing, pre-production and post-production.

Whodini’s efforts extend to bring art forms like storytelling, Therukoothu and puppetry alongside mainstream children theatre productions. The academy looks beyond all the stereotypes of art and theatre. At Whodini, novelty and revival are symbiotic. To rekindle people’s interest in forgotten art, we need to present it in a modernistic form. While trying to give a modern spin to theatre productions, the academy strives to breathe life into lost art. Whodini art academy also engages people of all age groups in theatre, music and art workshops. We study and do research on indigenous music and incorporate it in live theatres. Furthermore, Whodini Art Academy conducts workshops on a potpourri of indigenous musical instruments.

In this odyssey with theatre and art, Whodini Art Academy integrates with a wide range of artists and creators. The academy is associated with ThinaiNilaVaasigal, a Chennai based theatre group led by Mr. Bagu, Manalmagudi, a theatre group based out of Kovilpatti led by Dr. S. Murugaboopathy and Udalveli Arts Foundation in Coimbatore, founded by Mr. Dharani Dharan. Whodini is also associated with Theatre In Education (Nepal) piloted by Dr.Bisharad Basnet.

Testimonials



FOUNDER

logo

Leon James is well known as a musician, theatre artist and a music researcher. His expertise are reviving ancient musical instruments and creating awareness to people all around the world about the lost art forms and its unique connection with culture and history. It bridges the gap between who we are and how we are all connected around the world through this amazing medium called Music. He has done extensive research on the world's oldest existing and extinct musical instruments. He travels to different destinations to learn and teach indigenous people of the land.

He is very passionate about indigenous, tribal, extinct music and musical instruments. Intrigued by the lost art forms, Leon spends more time in finding the roots and the interdependence between music from people’s culture, tradition and beliefs. His forte is incorporating indigenous musical instruments in theatre and giving it a fresh, unique shape. Out of the 30 instruments that he plays in all genres, the Didgeridoo is his favourite.

Didgeridoo is an ancient musical instrument that belongs to the Aboriginal Australians and is one of the world’s oldest wind instruments. After mastering the didgeridoo, Leon began making his own instruments, and now teaches inquisitive learners of all age groups. He is also a vocalist and a theatre artist. He works with all age groups,exclusively children. He strongly that any form of art should be taught at an early stage and it should begin in schools. He believes that anyone can learn Music and Art. Apart from this, Leon is the music director and actor for the renowned theatre group, ‘ThinaiNilaVasigal’. He is the musician for Udalveli Arts Foundation, a Coimbatore based theatre group, and also works with Dr. S. Murugaboopathy, National Award Winner and the founder of ‘Manalmagudi Theatre Land’, to form musical theatre. He aspires to make everyone experience and celebrate music. With years of experience, working exclusively with children in theatre from kindergarten to high school, he encourages every child to push their creative boundaries, and integrate art as a part of their daily lives. His journey extends to reviving and restoring music that evanesced with time. He believes that music and theatre are beautiful and efficacious media that transcend generations, culture and other boundaries, thereby connecting people. Leon is also a sculptor and a professional mask maker. His quest is to go around the world, helping people appreciate ancient art forms rather than staying content nestled between new age electronic gadgets.



Charu is a theatre artist and a multilingual vocalist. She works exclusively in reviving and innovatively revamping ancient songs of different languages from all around the world. With the spirit to contemporize age-old music, she translates songs and incorporates them in children theatre and live stage plays. She pursues her research on ancient forms of music, especially lullabies and ceremonial songs, and its roots with our ancestors. Charu strongly believes that teaching ancient techniques of theatre and music among children let them rediscover their inner selves and embrace the complete process as budding artists.

In addition, she is currently a performer in ‘Udalveli Arts Foundation’, a Coimbatore based theatre team. Apart from being the vocalist and actor for ‘ThinaiNilaVasigal’, a Chennai based theatre group, she also works as an actor with National Award winning director, Dr. S. Murugaboopthy who leads ‘Manalmagudi Theatre Land’. Furthermore, she has scripted and directed several plays for children in English, Tamil and bilingual.

Charu is proficient in reading and writing ancient Tamil scripts like ‘Tamil Brahmi’ and ‘Vattezhutthukal’. Having been trained as a professional singer, she sings in nine different languages from around the world and plays musical instruments including, the Australian Didgeridoo, African Kalimba, Kazoo and Ukulele.

logo

Charu’s odyssey with art also turned her into a visual artist who specialises in acrylic and oil painting, along with charcoal, pen doodling and mural paintings. She has conducted many workshops on art, music, acting and script writing all over the state. Her dream is to revive the lost ancient art forms and make it flourish among audience of today’s digital era through theatre and music.