Steppenwolf: “Dear Steve . . . it’s Allie”
A love song to small town America from a radical leftist snowflake,
a contextually contingent, trans-feminine and gender-mobile father,
a heartland boy and a cosmopolitan lady.
“Dear Steve . . . it’s Allie” is a narrative concert, a theatrical autobiography told with songs and stories and pictures.
When Allie’s evangelical cousin invites her to come back to her hometown and go to church with him, Allie takes the opportunity to talk to Steve—on the late-night drive to his boyhood home—about the things she knows he was unable to see, and the unseen forces that have shaped them both. In a performance that is both traditional and high tech, Allie plays the piano and mountain dulcimer, weaving in historic field recordings, electronic music and symphonic samples, as she sings, tells stories, and talks to Steve about the heartland boy and devoted father she watched from a distance and the life she now lives as a trans elder, composer and artist.
