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Steve Walker

Arts Reporter

Since 1998, Steve Walker has contributed stories and interviews about theater, visual arts, and music as an arts reporter at KCUR. He's also one Up to Date's regular trio of critics who discuss the latest in art, independent and documentary films playing on area screens. 

In addition, Walker has taught creative writing and film criticism classes at the Kansas City Art Institute and currently teaches at the University of Kansas. His writing has appeared nationally in The Sondheim Review, The Advocate and Theater Week, and locally in The Kansas City Star, The Kansas City Business Journal, Ingram's, The Pitch and Review.

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Film
3:12 pm
Fri May 17, 2013

Michael Shannon A Family Man, Hit Man And 'The Iceman'

Credit Courtesy digitalspy.com
Michael Shannon and Winona Ryder in 'The Iceman'
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As intense as actor Michael Shannon has been on screens large and small, his chilling performance in Ariel Vroman's The Iceman ups the ante. 

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Up to Date
9:45 am
Fri May 17, 2013

Up To Date's Indie, Foreign & Doc Critics' 'Three To See', May 17-19, 2013

In The House
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By and and Cynthia Haines

Looking for a great film to see the weekend of May 17-19, 2013?

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Film
6:30 am
Fri May 17, 2013

Writing Teacher Finds A Prodigy With Problems In 'In The House'

Credit Courtesy Cohen Media Group
Kristin Scott Thomas rapt by writing in "In the House"
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Fans of both independent and foreign films can trust that, if they feature Kristin Scott Thomas, they're worth an investment of time, thought, and money.The bilingual actress has impeccable taste and can lift even mundane films to a place of esteemed elegance.

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Up to Date
11:44 am
Fri May 10, 2013

Up To Date's Indie, Foreign & Doc Critics' 'Three To See', May 10-12, 2013

Renoir
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By and Cynthia Haines

Looking for a great film to see the weekend of May 10-12, 2013?

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Film
9:38 am
Fri May 10, 2013

‘Renoir’ A Portrait Of An Artist In Decline

Credit Courtesy Samuel Goldwyn Films
Michel Bouqet at work as "Renoir"
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To look at the collected paintings of Pierre-Auguste Renoir is to see all possible colors and textures made more rich and tactile by the light. Gilles Bourdos’ evocative Renoir is less a comprehensive biography than a portrait of the man in his golden years (played with astonishing physical accuracy by Michel Bouquet) when his output is hardly dented at all by his physical impairments.

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Up To Date
11:47 am
Fri May 3, 2013

Up To Date's Indie, Foreign & Doc Critics' 'Three To See', May 3-5, 2013

Credit Porchlight Films
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By and Cynthia Haines and Bob Butler

Looking for a great film to see the weekend of May 3-5, 2013?

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Up to Date
6:00 pm
Thu May 2, 2013

What's Showing In Independent, Foreign & Documentary Film, May 3

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The Angels' Share
Disconnect
Lore
Mud
No Place On Earth
Starbuck
The Company You Keep
To The Wonder
Trance
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By , and and Cynthia Haines and Bob Butler

A rebound romance, a look at the omnipresence of the digital world and a German girl’s confused journey at the end of World War II are all competing for moviegoers’ attention this weekend.

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Up to Date
1:58 pm
Fri April 26, 2013

Up To Date's Indie, Foreign & Doc Critics' 'Three To See,' April 26-28, 2013

"The Gatekeepers" remains on critic Cynthia Haines "Three to See" list.
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By and and Cynthia Haines

Looking for a great film to see the weekend of April 26-28, 2013?

Up to Date's indie, documentary and foreign film critics share their three favorites showing on area screens.

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Film
8:05 am
Fri April 26, 2013

Tip A Tumbler Of Fine Scotch To 'The Angels' Share'

Credit Courtesy Sixteen Films/EPA
The cast of 'The Angels' Share'
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It takes great skill to make a movie that balances potentially incongruous tones of brutality, comedy and hope. With the marvelous new movie The Angels’ Share, director Ken Loach demonstrates that he is gifted enough to do that.

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Film
5:48 am
Fri April 26, 2013

From A Mucked Up Life, 'Mud' Barrels Through

Credit Courtesy Roadside Attractions
Matthew McConaughey and Tye Sheridan make unlikely comrades in 'Mud'
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A 14-year-old Arkansas kid gets mixed up with a murderer while pondering romantic notions about the meaning of love in Jeff Nichols’ assured and beautifully written Southern melodrama Mud.

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Up to Date
11:06 am
Fri April 19, 2013

Up To Date's Indie, Foreign & Doc Critics' 'Three To See,' April 19-21, 2013

No
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By and and Cynthia Haines

Looking for a great film to see the weekend of April 19-21, 2013?

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Performance
5:00 am
Tue April 16, 2013

'Bud, Not Buddy' Explores Racism And The Depression With Young Audiences

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Credit J. Robert Schraeder / courtesy of Coterie Theatre
Eboni Fondren (as Miss Thomas), Granvile T. O’Neal (as Mr. Jimmy), Elijah E. Murray (as Steady Eddie), and Aaron Branch (as Bud "not Buddy" Caldwell ) in 'Bud, Not Buddy.'
Credit J. Robert Schraeder / courtesy of Coterie Theatre
Aaron Branch as the eponymous 'Bud, Not Buddy' at the Coterie.
Credit J. Robert Schraeder / courtesy of Coterie Theatre
The Dusky Devastators, a roadhouse jazz band, in 'Bud, Not Buddy'
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Traditional ideas about theater for young audiences can get stuck in a library full of mischievous animals and recycled fairy tales. But the Coterie Theatre -  named by Time magazine as one of the top five theaters for young audiences in the United States - strives to be more adventurous, as in its new show for elementary school students that discusses jazz, the Depression, and racism.

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Up to Date
11:27 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Up To Date's Indie, Foreign & Doc Critics' 'Three To See,' April 12-14, 2013

Ryan Gosling in 'The Place Beyond The Pines.'
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By and and Cynthia Haines and Bob Butler

Looking for a great film to see the weekend of April 12-14, 2013?

Up to Date's indie, documentary and foreign film critics share their three favorites showing on area screens.

Cynthia Haines: The Gatekeepers; No; Quartet

Steve Walker: ​The Place Beyond The Pines; The Gatekeepers; No

Film
8:00 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Sins Of The Fathers Echo Throughout 'The Place Beyond The Pines'

Credit Courtesy Focus Features
Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes struggle to define a family in "The Place Beyond the Pines"
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As stories about sons and fathers go, they can range from the Biblical to mythological - where patricide was the norm - to the searing contemporary take on fatherhood  in the new movie The Place Beyond the Pines by Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance.

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Performance
5:00 am
Thu April 11, 2013

The Fishtank Stages Arthur Miller Play In Birdies

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Credit Studio 8183
Birdies, a lingerie and bridal shop, is located on W. 18th Street in the Crossroads.
Credit Steve Walker / KCUR
Artist collaborators Peregrine Honig and Heidi Van
Credit courtesy of Peregrine Honig
Peregrine Honig designed posters for the production of 'Elegy for a Lady.'
Credit courtesy of Peregrine Honig
Credit Studio 8183
The swim counter at Birdies.
Credit Studio 8183
An archway connects the two stores, Birdies and Birdies Bridal.
Credit courtesy The Fishtank
Heidi Van and Bob Paisley in "Elegy for a Lady" by Arthur Miller
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On some occasions, a play calls out to be staged somewhere other than a theater. For example, last year, a production of William Inge's "Bus Stop,"  which is set in a diner, was performed in one in Lee's Summit.  This weekend, an Arthur Miller one-act about a man shopping for intimate apparel for his mistress will be mounted in a Crossroads boutique that specializes in that kind of women's wear.

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