X-Acto's drama group is going to Azores!

We strived to take what we do best (acting), from the streets of Oporto to Azores. We're aiming to do it entirely free of charge, without any cachet of any kind. We were able so successfully afford the flight from Oporto to Ponta Delgada (Azores) and Ponta Delgada to Oporto; The only thing that's missing is the money to afford the flight passages from Ponta Delgada to Santa Maria (another island in the Azores archipelago).

In the wake of our most recent show, to take place in Azores (Santa Maria Island), we hereby stand to give you some more information on the theatre play "Actos e Omissões", scheduled to take place on 01/06/2017, at 9:30 pm, in Igreja das Vitórias, at Vila do Porto.

This play, penned and staged by Lara Morgado, author and screenwriter of the RTP1's television show "Dentro" (and the "7 minutos" book, edited by SIC's "Clube do Livro"), tells us all about a small portuguese village which is inevitably shaken by the arrival of a controversial clergyman. If, initially, he is taken in by everyone in said village in a gracious and embrace manner, the villagers attitude slowly starts to change, as the "unholy" behavior the priest chooses to peruse becomes one heavy problem in the sinner's minds who poured their hearts and souls for this new priest to hear...

This play was on stage on the 5th and 6th of November, in "Teatro da Vilarinha" (Oporto), displaying a remarkable box office performance on both days (as tickets sold out even before they were opened for sale to the public). It has since then been restaged on Matosinhos, having once again proven to both a box office and critical success. 

Even though the Vila do Porto's town hall has been supporting us every step of the way, both logistically and financially, to support our showing in their city (by providing us lodgings, meals, transfers, technical and human resources, as well as paying up for our flights from Oporto to Ponta Delgada (Azores), since our drama group will perform on stage free of charge and doesn't have many financial resources, we've stumbled upon an unexpected hardship, as we were told we'd have to pay up for the flight transportation between the São Miguel island (Ponta Delgada) and the Santa Maria island (Vila do Porto). All of this happens because the transfer flight between Ponta Delgada and Santa Maria is to take place 24h after our arrival in Ponta Delgada, the period of time in which the transfer flight air company (Sata Azores Airlines) wouldn't charge us for the transfer flight. We're talking about a 1 hour and 20 minutes margin of difference, which led SATA (the Azorian air flight company) to refuse to offer us the transfer flight fees, as it would otherwise do, something we could not have predicted beforehand. That being said, we have no other choice other than to pay up for the transfer flights, which amount to a sum of 493,92€ for 8 people in total. However, we are not able to afford this, as we currently do not have any money left to do so.

Despite having reached SATA and trying to explain the situation, and also after having tried to formalize a sponsorship protocol with said air flight company, so they'd offer us the flight tickets for the SP107/106 place (1/5/2017), SATA has officially refused to help us or sponsor our trip.  Suffice to say, we'll be arriving in Azores (Ponta Delgada) on the fourth of January of 2017, at 5:20 pm (thus making it so the flight SP107/106 is the only one which can take us to our destination in time to stage our play). Your help/support is extremely important!

About the author

Sixteen years ago, the X-Acto drama group was created. Initially associated with the University of Porto's Psychology and Educational Sciences Faculty. The group was created with one mindset: to break through a pressing tendency to depend on what everyone else previously stated, said and did. Above all,  their premise was to work exclusively with original screenplays and scripts and to put forth one different staging framework.

It was this very idea that sustained and influenced the creation of the very first play of the group, named "Caile-me para me ouvir falar" ("I kept quiet so I could hear myself talk").  The unexpected success this play achieved was enough to lead the group into creating and staging a second play, this time titled "Desvio Padrão" (Standard Deviation), which would then again become widely accepted and lauded by the public. Next year, a new project was brought about, which propelled the group into another audience, unrelated in any way to the faculty students which had been following the small yet constantly growing group. Thus, the "Collecionador de Conversas" (The conversations collector), another play, was created and staged. By 2004, "A terra não é redonda" ("The earth is not flat") was staged, which would then again widen the audience ranges and give the group some more notoriety and publicity.  "Um quarto de vida" ("A small piece of life") then premiered on the Teatro do Campo Alegre (Campo Alegre's theater), thus reaffirming the group's own identity and nature it carries on to this day.  "Corpo Presente" ("Present"), "Última hora" ("The Last Hour"), "Minoria Absoluta", ("Absolute Minority"), "Noturno" ("Nocturne in Turn"), "Contracções" ("Contractions"), "Procura-se" ("Missing") and "Harlet, ou a verdadeira história de Arlete" ("Harlet, or true story of Mrs. Arlet") are also titles of plays presented by this drama group in many showrooms in Oporto, Lisbon or even Coimbra.  In the year of 2010, the group would then officially break away from the Faculty it was created in, this becoming a full-fledged Theatre/Acting troupe.

Budget and due dates

We need to get the money to pay for the flight passages, as soon as possible, give how the prices tend to fluctuate around this time of year. The sum of money we're asking for takes on account that very same fluctuation. Crowdfunding still active even after the flight trip takes place.

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