WELCOME BACK TO OUR 2020-2021 SEASON - We are proud to present our TheatreFIRST Holiday Special!

WELCOME BACK TO OUR
    2020-2021 SEASON

 We are proud to present our
TheatreFIRST Holiday Special!

A Letter to You
To our dearest audience,

We have reached the final month of an incredibly difficult year. It
is a challenge to find the words that capture the utter devastation
wrought by the events of 2020, and it can be even more challenging
to cling tightly to the glimmers of hope that appear every so often.
For the TheatreFIRST family, we want to invite you into the
moments that bring us joy, comfort, and nostalgia. A look into the
ways we cope. At a time when so many of us are unable to be with
all of the people we love, the holidays contain tastes and sounds that
have the magic to transport us into each other’s company and
memories.

With this holiday special, we are interested in exploring this time
through the lens of music and food, which can be powerful forces of
joy. We hope that this episode inspires your tastebuds and delights
your ears. No matter what or how you celebrate the holiday season,
we wish you joy, health, and safety, and cannot wait to bring you
more of our stories in the New Year.

Thank you for being with us on this journey, and for being part of
our family.

                   With much love and gratitude,

                     Kimiya and the T1 Family

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FOODFIRST

Here are some of the recipes from Episode 3 of our serial season. If
   you try them out, snap a picture and tag us @theatrefirst on
                           Instagram!

                  A note from MAGIC FRUIT artists
             Alejandra Maria Rivas and Kimiya Shokri:

While online interaction is successful in connecting folks in many
ways, there will always be something that can only be achieved by
being in person with each other- being able to hug a friend, to
laugh in the same room, to share a meal. While we navigate
isolation, there is comfort to be found in nostalgia, although even
that is sometimes problematic. To be able to share our comforts with
each other, even at a distance, is a powerful tool in fighting against
the feelings invoked by an uncertain future. Food, for example, and
the process of making it have given many comfort, and have
allowed people who are otherwise alone to feel connected, ever
striving for the moment where they can reunite. As playwrights,
we have found that not only is food nourishing and comforting, but
it is also an expression of love, which we want to celebrate at a time
when more people are in their kitchens and connecting to each
other in and out of their homes through cooking for each other.

Food is a tangible thing. Let me share my soul with you.

Through the gift of making, sharing, and eating food, we can find
ways to connect to one another through time and space.
Food is joy. Food is comfort. Food is memory.
Food is the past, present, and future.
Food is storytelling.

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Orange Cardamom Cookies via Brooklyn Supper

Ingredients
    • 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
    • 16 tablespoons unsalted butter,room temperature (2 sticks)
    • 3/4 cup sugar
    • 1 egg
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • 1 teaspoon orange zest
    • 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
    • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
    • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Directions
   • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter
      on medium-low speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar
      and beat another 2 minutes. Beat in egg, stopping to scrape down sides as
      needed. Beat in vanilla, orange zest, cardamom, nutmeg, and sea salt.
      Switch mixer to low and add flour in two batches, mixing just until
      incorporated.
   • Divide dough into 4 discs, wrap tightly with plastic, and chill at least 2
      hours or preferably overnight.
   • Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment. Set
      up a large piece of parchment dusted with flour. Working quickly, and
      using plenty of flour as you go, roll chilled dough into a 1/4-inch thick
      rectangle. Dip cookie cutters in flour, and cut out cookies. Arrange on
      cookie sheets, spacing 1/2-inch apart.
   • Slide into oven and bake 7 - 10 minutes, or until cookies have puffed up
      slightly and edges turn a very light golden hue. Cool on cookie sheet 5
      minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

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Sholeh Zard - Saffron Rice Pudding

Ingredients
   • 1/2 cup Calrose rice
   • 3 cups water (and boiling water as needed if the pudding is getting
       too thick)
   • 1 tablespoon ground cardamom (put the powder in cheesecloth or
       little paper satchel, otherwise the cardamom will burn)
   • 1/2 granulated sugar
   • 1/3 cup rose water
   • 1/4 teaspoon ground saffron (mix with hot water and stir)
   • 1 pinch salt
   • Slivered pistachios (for decoration)
   • Ground cinnamon (for decoration)

Directions
   • Wash your rice well (at least three times). Add rice to a large non-
     stick pot with the water, and turn on the heat to high, until the rice
     comes to a boil.
   • Add in your rose water, cardamom packet, saffron, salt, and sugar.
   • Mix together and allow to simmer for at least an hour until very
     thick
   • Put in the fridge for at least a few hours to cool
   • Garnish with cinnamon and pistachios.

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Mango Sticky Rice

Ingredients
   • 1 cup Thai sweet rice (sticky rice)
   • 1 1/2 cups water
   • 1 can coconut milk
   • 1/4 teaspoon salt
   • 4-5 tablespoons sugar
   • 1-2 ripe mangos

Directions
  •   In a bowl wash rice well in several changes of cold water until water is
      clear. Mine took several, several, several washes. Soak rice in cold water to
      cover overnight.
  •   Drain rice well in a sieve. Set sieve over a large deep saucepan of
      simmering water (sieve should not touch water) and steam rice (I was able
      to have a really cool green looking steamer item), covered, 30 to 40
      minutes, or until tender (check water level in pan occasionally, adding
      more water if necessary). Don’t let the water touch the rice.
  •   While rice is cooking, in a small saucepan bring 1 cup coconut milk to a boil
      with 1/3 cup sugar and salt, stirring until sugar is dissolved, and remove
      from heat. Keep the mixture warm.
  •   Transfer cooked rice to a bowl and stir in coconut-milk mixture. Let rice
      stand, covered, 30 minutes, or until coconut-milk mixture is absorbed. Rice
      may be prepared up to this point 2 hours ahead and kept covered at room
      temperature.
  •   While rice is standing, in a cleaned small pan slowly boil remaining 1/3 cup
      coconut milk with remaining 3 tablespoons sugar, stirring occasionally, 1
      minute. Transfer sauce to a small bowl and chill until cool and thickened
      slightly.
  •   While cooling, slice your mango (don’t forget about the pit in the middle,
      don’t eat that)!
  •   To serve, mold 1/4 cup servings of sticky rice on dessert plates. Drizzle
      desserts with sauce. Divide mango slices among plates.

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Ginger Crème Brulee

Ingredients
      •   4 cups heavy cream
      •   1/4 cup (and 2 tablespoons) minced fresh ginger
      •   3/4 cup (and 2 tablespoons) granulated sugar
      •   1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
      •   1/4 teaspoon table salt
      •   10 large egg yolks

Directions
  •       Position a rack in the center of your oven and heat the oven to 350°F. Bring a pot or
          a kettle of water to a boil. Put 6 ramekins or teacups, whatever you got, in a
          roasting pan or baking dish.
  •       Put the cream, ginger, 1/4 cup of the sugar, the vanilla, and salt in a medium
          saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar
          dissolves. Cover, remove from the heat (if you have time steep for 20 minutes).
  •       In a medium bowl, whisk the yolks and 1/4 cup of the sugar until smooth and
          combined. Lightly whisk about 1/2 cup of the warm cream mixture into the yolk
          mixture and then gradually whisk in the remaining cream mixture.
  •       Strain the mixture through a fine sieve to get all the ginger bits out. You don’t want
          chewy ginger in your custard, we want the flavor.
  •       Divide the custard among the ramekins as evenly as you can. Slowly pour hot water
          from the kettle/pot whatever you got, into the baking pan (don’t get any water in
          the ramekins) until it comes about two-thirds of the way up the sides of the
          ramekins.
  •       Carefully transfer the pan to the oven and bake until the custards are set around
          the edges but still slightly jiggly (like Jell-O) in the center, 30 to 35 minutes.
          Transfer the ramekins to a cooling rack and let cool at room temperature for 30
          minutes. Then refrigerate the custards uncovered or covered, I like to cover mine.
          Once the custards are refrigerator-cold, wrap each ramekin with plastic wrap.
          Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or up to 2 days before proceeding, or overnight.
  •       To serve, sprinkle 1-1/2 tsp. of the remaining sugar evenly over each custard. Wipe
          any sugar off the rim of the ramekins if you spilled. Light a mini blowtorch and
          hold the flame 2 to 3 inches from the top of the custard, slowly gliding it back and
          forth over the surface until the sugar melts and turns a deep golden brown. I added
          some cinnamon in my sugar which took longer to burn.
  •       Allow the sugar to cool and harden for a few minutes, and then serve immediately.

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THEATREFIRST: WHO WE ARE

Though our online community is global, we here at TheatreFIRST
want to first acknowledge that our current physical address sits on
stolen Chochenyo Ohlone land. Further, we acknowledge this
country’s wealth and assets were built by the enslavement of black
and brown bodies, the theft of Indigenous land, and that the core
tenets of that enslavement and theft continue to oppress our Black,
Brown and Indigenous communities to this day. Reparations are
past due. May we all push for a world that returns these lands to
their rightful owners, and to this end, we demand a redistribution
of the global economies that brings restorative justice and provides
equitable resources to all.

Leading with mandates of a minimum two-thirds people of color,
half female-identified, and one-third LGBTQIA2+ in all aspects of
infrastructure and production, our voices explore and exhibit the
promise of representation. We challenge traditional constructs at
every stage of theatre’s world-building process because of our deep,
circular belief that progressive action will lead us to the unheard
stories we’ve longed to speak and hear, and that those stories will
navigate us towards the best version of ourselves in community.

   Thank YOU for being part of our family!

  We are so immensely grateful for you, and we
wish you the happiest holiday season, and we can’t
         wait to see you in the new year!

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