PANNIQTUUQ/PANGNIRTUNG - They brought with them not only a love of theatre, music, singing and dancing but also tons of magazines, scissors and glue.

Toronto-based artist, actress, dancer and singer Patricia Summersett and Montreal-based playwright, musician, performer and composer Nick Carpenter were in the community in the middle of May to deliver character-building workshops.

"They loved it, they enjoyed it and it's very interesting to see what they have come up with," said Shamim Sharif, student support teacher at Attagoyuk School.

Summersett and Carpenter did two workshops at Attagoyuk School and two at Alookie School.

Around 15 students took part in the workshop at the high school.

Students were given plenty of magazines to cut out shapes, body parts and things to use to build a person or character and showed what that person would look like and where they would live.

"We focused on what a character wants, which is a fundamental dramatic base," Summersett said.

The result at one of the high school workshops at Attagoyuk was one female character and one male character glued onto a piece of paper.

Sharif said the female had a very masculine body and had a dog and cat and lived in a small hut.

From there, the students got out their pencils and pens, putting their thoughts to paper.

"It comes down to self-expression," Shamim said.

On May 26, well after Carpenter and Summersett were gone, Sharif continued the activity by getting the students to take their pictures and write about what the person in the picture could experience.

This, she said, drew out a lot of feelings, creative names and situations.

She said one student wrote about sports and taking

steroids while another person's character was at a restaurant.

All of the writing was done in English.

While Carpenter and Summersett have gone back south, they have offered a way for the students to keep in touch with them.

She said if the students wrote a short scene based on the characters, she and Carpenter would find actors and make a short film of it.

"That would be so they can see it brought to life," Summersett said.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.