The group brainstormed ideas, eliminated and organized them into scenes and scripted an Institute play. Some classroom work was also done in developing Inuktitut writing and interpreting skills. By the second month, a collection of 40 ajajaq (Inuit folk songs) and an Institute play were typed into the computer and rehearsals began. While I oversaw the program my husband, Pakak, participated and directed the actors' work.

New ideas were included and old ones eliminated. The process of research-synthesis refinement was repeated over and over again. The play's title, "Changes", proved apt because by the end of the training program we had over a dozen different scripts.

There were many flare-ups, inherent to most group creative approaches. When an adult educator from another community spent a week working with the group on acting technique and noticed that there were few female roles in the script, the actors took a hard look at their script and realized that action in the form of hunting, games and violence had been gradually inserted, eliminating the more tranquil scenes involving women at work and play.

After lengthy debate the female actors met with elder women and discussed activities of traditional women. New scenes were added portraying the strength, wisdom and determination of Inuit women who were often left caring for children and elders at isolated camps, awaiting hunters who sometimes never returned with desperately needed food.

Three of the eight actors, including one of the group leaders, were women; Inga Attogootak, mother of three and an experienced translator , and two younger women with little previous work experience. There are few employment opportunities available to women which challenge their communication and problem-solving capacities. A few months of the theatre project saw the women beginning to take more active roles in play development.

They took their roles seriously and enjoyed the study session with elder women. One raised her English reading skills two grade points on a standard adult literacy test. Of all the group's participants it was probably the three women who took the craft of acting most seriously. They worked to wring meaning out of each word and action. Acting had become for them the first chance to experience the self-confidence and personal fulfillment of a challenging job.

By the third month "Changes " was performed in Inuktitut before the community. After the exhilaration of that production was over the 18 final leg of the program began. The group saw videotapes of the play and critically analyzed the script. Again the process began pooling ideas, researching, synthesizing, refining the script, rehearsing.

In the last two months there was one drop-out, a young man who couldn't deal with the constant pressure of responsibility to the group. However, his participation hadn't been a total failure; his English had improved, he had more self-confidence and for the first time he had something to wake up for in the mornings. I had a feeling that he'd be back if we ran the program again.

After a quick replacement, the last three weeks of the program were spent solely on rehearsals and production. The actors learned to make a large sealskin tent and props such as traditional harpoons and a skin drum. They were orientated to getting around southern cities and airports and warned about the many dangers to small-town tourists.

After the final English version of "Changes" was performed before the community, the actors, calling themselves Tunooniq Theatre, traveled to Vancouver where Expo crowds of over 600 saw the play twice a day for two weeks. They fell into strict habits, arriving one hour ahead of show time and abstaining from alcohol and drugs until the final performance. They visited tourist attractions and met people from allover the world. Everyone they met was interested in their culture and the play. What a change from a life spent in a community of 800 where everybody knew them!

After Expo, the group traveled to the Inuit Circumpolar Conference where over 300 Inuit leaders from three countries saw the play and were impressed. On their way back to Pond Inlet they performed at an Edmonton folk festival where the local media gave them much exposure. While the original objectives of the project had been to lead young adults to further training and other job opportunities, the project was so successful as a work experience it had become to the participants a career they wanted to further themselves in. But finding funding for theatre groups is a barrel-scraping, time-consuming effort.

In our case the problem is compounded by the high cost of transportation even between the isolated communities of the Baffin region and there is no centre with a population large enough to support a theatre. However, all the original actors maintain their interest in theatre and are keen to work on other projects. Since returning from their summer tour last year, the group has been invited to perform in several festivals from eastern Canada to Greenland and they made a return visit to Ottawa's Winterlude, but the most challenging venture they took on after their initial project was a contract with the N.W.T. Government to write, develop and perform a play which explored the causes, effects and solution of family violence. Despite the controversial nature of the project, five of the original actors helped develop two plays which were part of a territorial push to bring the spousal assault issue out of the privacy of homes and into the arena of public discussion.