“Dear Steve…it’s Allie”
a love song to small town America from
a radical, trans-feminine, cosmopolitan snowflake
Scroll down to learn more and watch the trailer on this page.
“Dear Steve…it’s Allie”
is a 90-minute theatrical autobiography,
told with stories and songs,
an embrace of Allie’s small town Baptist boyhood,
and of her life as a grown man and father,
featuring Allie n Steve Mullen,
a contextually contingent, trans-feminine, gender-mobile father,
a heartland boy and a cosmopolitan lady.
A narrative concert
In a performance that is both traditional and high tech, Allie plays the piano and mountain dulcimer, weaving in electronic music and samples, as she sings, tells stories, and talks to her younger self — Steve — detailing the things she knows that he is not able to see, even as a grown man.
The recollection of a chance encounter on the train, an ice cream cone with a date, a jingle composed for a chemical manufacturer, the memory of a boyhood home run, a conversation with their daughter about her bat mitzvah, all reveal the unseen forces at play for both Allie n Steve ever since the doctor first said, “It’s a boy!”
As Allie extends the grace to Steve that he is not able to extend to himself, we are invited to see ourselves, like Allie n Steve, as multiple, and to think about what it might mean for both Allie n Steve to live a reflective and connected life in a country as deeply divided as our own.
Watch a 10-minute except of clips from “Dear Steve…it’s Allie” above
Written and performed by Allie n Steve Mullen
Story conceived in conversation with Lloyd Brodnax King and Beatrice Bosco
Directed by Beatrice Bosco
Filmed by Tirtza Even
Lighting and cinematography by Meredith Zielke
Edited by Pegah Pasalar and Mauricio Dias Chades de Alencar
Sound recorded by Emily Beanblossom and Haruhi Kobayashi
Special thanks to:
Shiben Banerji, Paul and Cyndi Demaree, Leah Gipson, Christina Gomez, William Harper, and Dwayne Moser