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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
11:23 am
Fri February 22, 2013

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

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By and and Cynthia Haines

Looking for a great film to see the weekend of February 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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Up to Date
11:58 am
Fri February 15, 2013

Up To Date's Indie, Foreign & Doc Critics' 'Three To See,' February 15-17, 2013

The 2013 Oscar Shorts (Live Action and Animated) are showing at the Tivoli Theater in Kansas City, Mo.
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By and and Cynthia Haines

Looking for a great film to see the weekend of February 15-17, 2013?

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

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Performance
5:02 am
Tue February 12, 2013

Kansas City Residents Inform And Inspire KC Rep's 'Waiting For You'

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Credit Steve Walker / KCUR
Michael Rohd and Rachel Chavkin, co-directors of KC Rep's "Waiting for You
Credit Steve Walker / KCUR
Actor Bobby Bermea, who plays a Kansas City barber in "Waiting for You"
Credit Steve Walker / KCUR
"Waiting for You" co-director Rachel Chavkin, recently featured in a New York Times profile of up-and-coming theater directors.
Credit Courtesty Kansas City Rep
Missouri Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver with "Waiting for You" cast and crew.
Credit Steve Walker / KCUR
Portland, Oregon-based actor Bobby Bermea at a "Waiting for You" rehearsal
Credit Steve Walker / KCUR
Jake Margolin with the NYC-based troupe The TEAM at "Waiting For You" rehearsal
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It's not often that two different theater companies with roots on both coasts converge in Kansas City. Yet that's the case this month at Kansas City Repertory Theatre. The TEAM from Brooklyn and Sojourn Theatre Company with connections to Portland, Oregon are mounting what's called a developmental production of a new play based on interviews over several months with many Kansas City residents.

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Up to Date
11:42 am
Fri February 8, 2013

Up To Date's Indie, Foreign & Doc Critics' 'Three To See,' February 8-10, 2013

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By and and Cynthia Haines and Bob Butler

Looking for a great film to see the weekend of February 8-10, 2013?

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

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Film
6:50 am
Fri February 8, 2013

Time And Illness Test A Couple's Vows In 'Amour'

Credit Courtesy Film Forum
Best Actress nominee Emmanuelle Riva in Michael Haneke's "Amour"
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Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke may be the most divisive director of the last decade.  But his latest film, Amour, which recently received four Oscar nominations including both Best Foreign Film and Best Picture, leaves audiences floored. It's a great movie that no one suspected the devilish, at times sadistic, Haneke would or could ever make.

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Up to Date
6:00 pm
Thu February 7, 2013

What's Showing In Independent, Foreign & Documentary Film

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Stand Up Guys
Quartet
Oscar-nominated shorts
Side Effects
Rust and Bone
Sister
Amour
56 UP, coming to Kansas City March 8
On the Road, coming to Kansas City in March
West of Memphis, coming to Kansas City March 8
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By , and and Bob Butler and Cynthia Haines

A group of aging criminals try to recapture their youth, an anti-anxiety medicine turns people homicidal and a couple deals with a tragic accident.

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Film
7:00 am
Fri February 1, 2013

From Maggie Simpson To Afghanistan: The 2013 Oscar Nominated Shorts

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Credit shortoftheweek.com
Deceptive hand grenade in Oscar-nominated animated film "Fresh Guacamole"
Credit shortoftheweek.com
Homeless teenage artist subject of nominated documentary short "Inocente"
Credit hitflix.com
Maggie Simpson at the Ayn Rand School for Tots in "The Longest Daycare"
Credit roundpulse.com
Disney's Oscar-nominated animated short "Paperman"
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For several years, a compilation of Oscar-nominated short films - in animation, live action, and documentary - has opened in theaters across the globe , making those categories on Academy Award night not as foreign or inaccessible as they used to be. This season's entries again include a variety of styles,  themes and locations, ranging from the Ayn Rand School for Tots where the perpetually silent Maggie Simpson is dropped off at The Longest Daycare to Buzkashi Boys and the cacophonous streets of Kabul.

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Performance
5:00 am
Fri February 1, 2013

Rare William Inge Plays With Gay Themes Open In Historic Bar

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Credit Joseph Keehn
De De Deville and Ray Ettinger (back to camera) in "An Otherwise Hopeless Evening"
Credit Courtesy Gay & Lesbian Archive of Mid-America
Rae Bourbon, a Jewel Box regular in its day
Credit Joseph Keehn
De De Deville and Brad Shaw in William Inge plays at the Jewel Box
Credit Joseph Keehn
Cast of "An Otherwise Hopeless Evening" outside the Jewel Box
Credit Courtest Gay & Lesbian Archive of Mid-America
Souvenir fan from the historic Jewel Box
Credit Joseph Keehn
Joseph Keehn piece from the installation at the Jewel Box
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This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of playwright William Inge, whose classic plays like Bus Stop and Picnic drew on his formative years in Independence, Kansas. Though never openly gay, he did write a series of short plays featuring gay characters and stories that have seldom been seen.

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Film
6:00 am
Fri January 25, 2013

Behind The Berlin Wall, Life Grows Less Grim For A Doctor Named ‘Barbara’

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Credit Courtesy of Adopt Films
Nina Hoss plays the title character in Christian Petzold's 'Barbara.'
Credit Courtesy of Adopt Films
From Germany's Christian Petzold: 'Barbara'
Credit Courtesy of Adopt Films
Andre (Ronald Zehrfeld) in a scene from Christian Petzold’s 'Barbara.'
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In Christian Petzold’s moody and beautifully shot Barbara, audiences are given a peek into what life might have been like in 1980 for smart and talented people stuck on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall.

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Performance
5:00 am
Thu January 24, 2013

'BlackTop Sky' Marks Young Playwright's Homecoming

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Credit Maggie Elliot / Unicorn Theatre
Playwright Christina Anderson
Credit Cynthia Levin / Unicorn Theatre
Tosin Morohunfola & Chioma Anyanwu in a scene from "BlackTop Sky" at Unicorn Theatre — with Tosin Morohunfola and Chioma Anyanwu.
Credit Cynthia Levin / Unicorn Theatre
"BlackTop Sky" features Chioma Anyanwu (kneeling), Tosin Morohunfola (left) & Frank Oakley III (center)
Credit Cynthia Levin / Unicorn Theatre
Chioma Anyanwu as Ida Peters, who dreams of a better life.
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The world premiere of the play BlackTop Sky, opening this weekend at the Unicorn Theatre, marks a homecoming for its author.

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Up to Date
11:41 am
Fri January 18, 2013

Up To Date's Indie, Foreign & Doc Critics' 'Three To See,' January 18-20, 2013

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Looking for a great film to see the weekend of January 18 to 20, 2013?

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

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Film
6:04 am
Fri January 18, 2013

Brutality And Tenderness Converge In 'Rust And Bone'

Credit Courtesy Sony Classics / KCUR
Mattias Schoenaerts and Marion Cotillard in 'Rust and Bone'
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Foreign films do well in the United States in proportion to how successfully their captivating stories feel as close as next door - not foreign at all but intimate and familiar. French filmmaker Jacques Audiard does this with startling acuity in his new movie Rust and Bone, where Oscar winner Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose) and Belgian star-in-the-making Matthias Schoenaerts ferociously embody lost souls bonded by their inner demons and outer damage.

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Performance
5:00 am
Fri January 18, 2013

As In 'Billy Elliot,' Barriers To Boys In Ballet Disappear With Grace

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Credit Julie Denesha / KCUR
Nathan Rogers, 7, laughs as he holds a pose.
Credit Julie Denesha / KCUR
Ballet Instructor Sean Duss lines up his students as the Monday class for boys begins.
Credit Julie Denesha / KCUR
Students point their toes as they warm up.
Credit Julie Denesha / KCUR
Sean Duss leads his boys.
Credit Julie Denesha / KCUR
Nathan Rogers, 7, laughs as Henry Ruland, 9, practices his positions.
Credit Julie Denesha / KCUR
In between exercises, students blow off steam.
Credit Julie Denesha / KCUR
The boys work on timing their steps and holding poses.
Credit Julie Denesha / KCUR
Sean Duss grades the boys as they leap in the air.
Credit Julie Denesha / KCUR
Cayo Dominguez-Heithoff, 9, smiles as he lines up with his classmates.
Credit Julie Denesha / KCUR
Sean Duss leads the boys in core muscle exercises.
Credit Julie Denesha / KCUR
Henry Ruland, 9, (from left) and Cayo Dominguez-Heithoff, 9, watch as their instructor demonstates.
Credit Julie Denesha / KCUR
Rory Colligan, 6, (from left) and Nathan Rogers, 7, watch older students from the sidelines.
Credit KCUR
Scene from "Billy Elliot"
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The musical Billy Elliot, which won ten Tony Awards in 2009 and comes to Kansas City's Music Hall next week, teaches that to move toward a dream, the dream must involve movement.

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Up to Date
12:56 pm
Fri January 11, 2013

Up To Date's Indie, Foreign & Doc Critics' 'Three To See,' January 11-13, 2013

Scene from 'Zero Dark Thirty.'
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By and and Bob Butler and Cynthia Haines

Looking for a great film to see the weekend of January 11 to 13, 2013?

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

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Film
6:00 am
Fri January 11, 2013

Ten Years After 9/11, Retaliation Starts At 'Zero Dark Thirty'

Credit www.eurweb.com / KCUR
Jessica Chastain in "Zero Dark Thirty"
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We may never know the whole truth of what led to the killing of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011, but the chronology and intricate plotting on display in Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty - as controversial as they have proven to be -  make for riveting cinema.  It's a movie whose heart pulses at a rapid rate that, in certain scenes, will match your own.

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