Support our work
El Mentidero opens its doors nearly every weekend of the year, and what happens inside — and what goes out on the road — exists because someone decides to sustain it.
Joining in is the most direct way to put theatre in more places, in front of more people, and on better terms for the people who make it.
One rule explains most of what follows. In Mexico, public arts funding pays for activity and cannot be used to buy assets. It covers artists' fees, production and part of an organization's running costs. It does not cover the lighting and sound equipment every performance depends on, the vehicle that carries theatre to rural communities, or the work the building needs. An organization can operate on public support for years and never once invest in the things it operates with. There is no Mexican equivalent of a capital grant.
Ticket sales do not close that gap either. Prices here are already subsidized, and what comes in is spoken for. That gap is where a gift goes. Not to cover a management failure — to do what no other money available in this country is allowed to do.
One more thing worth saying at the outset. Everything this company does serves two constituencies at once: audiences, and the people who make the work. Sonora trains artists and has nowhere to employ them. Sustaining a season is, before anything else, sustaining employment.
Where your support goes
You can support an entire program, a specific need that runs across all of them, or contribute without money changing hands. Everything below is real and costed. Nothing is listed to fill out the page.
The programs
Seasons New productions every year and performances nearly every weekend, plus the guest companies we host. A gift expands the creative team of a production, gives a piece the research and rehearsal time it asks for, and replaces the technical equipment every performance depends on.
La Cachetona The trailer that folds open into a stage and takes free theatre to communities across Sonora. A gift translates into how many performances happen, how many municipalities the tour reaches, the cast and creative team each production hires, and whether the trailer stays roadworthy.
El Rola A standing stage for original music written in Sonora. A gift funds artist development for musicians starting out — promotion, better audio and video capture, press materials — and adds a performance fee to the exchange the house already offers every band.
Festivals DMT, De Península a Península and Somos del Cerro. A festival concentrates into a single week costs no box office in a city this size can absorb, which is why this is the program that most depends on someone else stepping in. A gift makes a second edition of DMT possible, which is the company's priority, and returns Somos del Cerro to the calendar.
Equipment and infrastructure
What no Mexican public program can pay for, and therefore what only private philanthropy can solve. Lighting and sound equipment, much of it currently rented each time. The La Cachetona trailer, which an entire program depends on. And the building work needed to keep receiving audiences in decent conditions.
Ready and waiting on funding
Three things already designed or already proven, ready to move the moment there is something to move them with.
Apapushi, theater for schools. A school program fully designed and documented, never launched. It needs the person who brings it to schools, with their training; the second cast that makes weekday performances possible without exhausting the ensemble; the technical personnel those performances require; and transportation for public-school groups, which is the real barrier, since a private school solves it on its own.
Somos del Cerro. The festival for the neighborhoods around us. Two editions, 2022 and 2023. It is the least expensive of our three festivals and the most socially consequential, and putting it back on the calendar depends on the funding an edition is built on.
A second edition of DMT. The first was paid for 70% out of the company's own resources — money taken from that year's operations. A second edition is the program's priority today.
Decent work
Ticket sales are enough to keep the doors open, and support here is what allows the company to go further: better working conditions, more paid weeks for the ensemble and the crews, and ongoing training for technical and administrative staff.
In-kind support
Not all support is money, and in-kind help goes a long way here: technical or video equipment in good condition; lodging and travel for visiting companies; professional services — legal, accounting, translation, photography, video; production materials; rehearsal or storage space. In-kind gifts are valued at fair market value and reported as such.
Institutional partnership
For organizations, universities, festivals and companies:
- Coproduce a new work, with shared credit.
- Present our work at your festival, venue or campus.
- Residencies and exchange, particularly with companies and programs in Arizona and the US Southwest, which are closer to us than Mexico City is.
- Corporate sponsorship, with your company's name attached to a program.
Who we have worked with
Ways to work with us
These are every route by which someone can support or partner with the company. Each carries a different tax treatment and suits a different kind of collaborator. If you are not sure which one applies to you, say so in the form and we will walk you through it.
1. Tax-deductible gift from the United States
Our fiscal sponsor is Alianza Fronteriza de Filantropía, a 501(c)(3) organization. Gifts are made to the Alianza and designated for Compañía Teatral del Norte, and are deductible in the United States under US law. This is the route for foundations, donor-advised funds and individual donors in the US.
2. Tax-deductible gift from Mexico
Compañía Teatral del Norte, A.C. is a registered Mexican charitable organization, authorized to issue a fiscal receipt that makes a gift deductible under Mexican law. No prior paperwork is needed.
3. EFIARTES · federal tax-credit funding
A Mexican federal program that lets a company taxed in Mexico direct part of its income tax to national theatre production. It is a tax credit, not a deduction: the amount contributed is credited against income tax, peso for peso. It applies to companies and to individuals with business activity who are taxed in Mexico. The project is submitted to the relevant committee, which authorizes the amount and issues the certificate the company uses to claim the credit; we prepare the file and accompany the company through the process.
4. EFICAS · the Sonora equivalent
The state-level version of the same mechanism, for companies taxed in Sonora, with its own committee and its own call. A single amount cannot be claimed under two different tax benefits, so the route is decided up front.
5. In-kind support
Technical or video equipment in good condition; lodging and travel for visiting companies; professional services — legal, accounting, translation, photography, video; production materials; rehearsal or storage space. In-kind gifts are valued at fair market value and reported as such.
6. Corporate sponsorship
Your company's name attached to a program or a production, with agreed credit and visibility. Unlike a gift, this is a commercial relationship with something given in return, and it is invoiced as such.
7. Coproduction
Producing a new work together with another organization, university or festival, with shared credit and with costs and rights set out in writing from the start.
8. Presenting our work
Programming a production from our repertory at your festival, venue or campus. It is both partnership and earned income: every performance away from home sustains the people who make it.
9. Residencies and exchange
Hosting or sending artists, particularly with companies and programs in Arizona and the US Southwest, which are closer to us than Mexico City is.
How to give
From the United States. Our fiscal sponsor is Alianza Fronteriza de Filantropía, a 501(c)(3) organization. Gifts are made to the Alianza and designated for Compañía Teatral del Norte, and your gift is tax-deductible in the United States under US law.
From Mexico. Compañía Teatral del Norte, A.C. is a registered Mexican charitable organization, authorized to issue tax-deductible receipts under Mexican law.
Companies taxed in Mexico can direct part of their income tax to artistic production through the EFIARTES and EFICAS programs. That is a tax credit rather than a deduction, and we are glad to explain how it works.
What happens next
We tell you where your gift went and what it produced, with figures and dates. We invite you to performances of the program you supported. And if you come to Hermosillo, the house is open — we would rather you saw the work than read about it. The city has an international airport and is a four-hour drive from Tucson.
What we do not do: we do not share or sell your information, we do not publish your name without permission, and we do not accept gifts that place conditions on the artistic content of a production.
Let's begin
Tell us what interests you and we will reply within two business days.
Or write directly to proyectos@mentidero.mx