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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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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

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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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Up to Date
11:36 am
Fri April 5, 2013

Up To Date's Indie, Foreign & Doc Critics' 'Three To See,' April 5-7, 2013

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By and and Bob Butler and Cynthia Haines

Looking for a great film to see the weekend of April 5-7, 2013?

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

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Film
9:00 am
Fri April 5, 2013

Multiple Personalities Cross Time And Boundaries in '6 Souls'

Credit Courtesy of The Weinstein Company
Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Julianne Moore headline the eerie "6 Souls"
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Made three years ago but only now seeing the light of day - though there’s nary a shaft of light in it – 6 Souls is from the Swedish directing team Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein. At times preposterous and blatantly derivative of films like Paranormal Activity and The Exorcist, it’s an effectively creepy psychological thriller that knows how to twist its plot threads around viewers’ necks, and it draws you in in spite of itself.

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Up to Date
6:00 pm
Thu April 4, 2013

What's Showing In Independent, Foreign & Documentary Film

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The Gatekeepers
Ginger and Rosa
Happy People
On the Road
6 Souls
Stoker
The Sapphires
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By and and Bob Butler and Cynthia Haines

A group of Aboriginal singers get their big break—but it means traveling into the midst of the Vietnam War.

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Up to Date
12:45 pm
Fri March 29, 2013

Up To Date's Indie, Foreign & Doc Critics' 'Three To See,' March 29-31, 2013

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By and and Cynthia Haines

Looking for a great film to see the weekend of March 29-31, 2013?

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

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Up to Date
11:45 am
Fri March 22, 2013

Up To Date's Indie, Foreign & Doc Critics' 'Three To See,' March 22-24, 2013

In 1964 a group of seven-year old children were interviewed for the documentary “Seven Up.” They’ve been filmed every seven years since. Now they are 56.
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By and and Cynthia Haines

Looking for a great film to see the weekend of March 22-24, 2013?

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

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Film
10:30 am
Fri March 22, 2013

Werner Herzog's Year With The 'Happy People' Of Siberia

Credit Studio Babelsberg
Hunting Season with Faithful Canine Companion in 'Happy People'
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Being happy is relative and subjective, meaning different things for different people in different parts of the world. And that's certainly the case for the resilient villagers profiled in Werner Herzog's and Dmitry Vasyukov's documentary Happy People: A Year in the Taiga, which tracks all four seasons among a scrappy group who live where few could.

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