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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
9:59 am
Fri June 22, 2012

Up To Date's Film Critics' 'Three To See'

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By and and Cynthia Haines

Looking for a great independent, foreign, or documentary film to see the weekend of June 22-24, 2012? Up to Date's critics share their three favorite showing on area screens.

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Film
6:28 am
Fri June 22, 2012

Religious Tension Squelched With Song In 'Where Do We Go Now?'

Credit Sony Pictures Classics
Keeping a Village At Peace: "Where Do We Go Now"
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Director Nadine Labaki's Where Do We Go Now? is a darkly comic and provocative riff on the suggestion that if women ruled the world, war would be a thing of the past.

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Performance
5:00 am
Tue June 19, 2012

Shakespeare Festival Doubles Down With Two Shows In Rep

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Credit Brian Collins / fixation media
Bruce Roach (left) with co-stars in "Antony and Cleopatra"
Credit Brian Collins / fixation media
Kim Martin-Cotten and John Rensenhouse in "Antony and Cleopatra"
Credit Brian Collins / fixation media
Kim Martin-Cotten and John Rensenhouse in "Antony and Cleopatra"
Credit Steve Walker
The set for "Antony and Cleopatra"
Credit Steve Walker
The "Midsummer Night's Dream" set on the flip side of the set for "Antony and Cleopatra"
Credit Steve Walker
The two-sided set: "Antony" on the left, "Midsummer" on the right
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This year's Heart of America Shakespeare Festival is going back and forth between comedy and tragedy on alternate nights, returning to a two-show season performed in repertory, which it hasn't done in a decade. 

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Film
10:16 am
Fri June 15, 2012

Up To Date's Film Critics' 'Three To See'

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By and and Cynthia Haines

Looking for a great independent, foreign, or documentary film to see the Memorial Day holiday weekend of June 15-17, 2012? Up to Date's critics share their three favorite showing on area screens.

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Performance
5:00 am
Wed June 13, 2012

Blood And Sonnets Fuel The Living Room's 'Titus Andronicus'

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Credit Paul Andrews
Mark Robbins and cast members of "Titus Andronicus" at The Living Room
Credit Paul Andrews
Titus Andronicus as played by Mark Robbins
Credit Steve Walker
Eryn Bates Preston and Kyle Hatley at The Living Room
Credit Steve Walker
The Living Room performance space at 1818 McGree
Credit Steve Walker
Eryn Bates Preston at the piano for "Titus Andronicus"
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For twenty years, Shakespeare in the park has been as reliable a part of a Kansas City summer as the heat and humidity.

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Up to Date
12:08 pm
Fri June 8, 2012

Up To Date's Film Critics' "Three To See"

Judi Dench in "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel."
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By and and Cynthia Haines

Looking for a great independent, foreign, or documentary film to see the Memorial Day holiday weekend of June 8-10, 2012? Up to Date's critics share their three favorite showing on area screens.

You can click on the highlighted links for Steve Walker's film reviews.

Cynthia Haines: Monsieur Lazhar, Kid on a Bike, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

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Film
7:52 am
Fri June 8, 2012

An Unlikely Bromance In 'The Intouchables'

Credit The Weinstein Company
Omar Sy & Francois Cluzet in flight in "The Intouchables."
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On the strengths of The Artist and The King's Speech, the Weinstein Company has asserted its good taste by winning the Best Picture Oscar the last two years.

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Arts & Culture
5:00 am
Tue June 5, 2012

Living With Bipolar Disorder Feels 'Next To Normal'

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Credit Theater League
Credit Theater League
Credit Theater League
Credit Genaro Molina
Credit Broadway World
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According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 5.7 million Americans are affected by bipolar disorder, a mental illness accompanied by moods that can swing from deep lows to dizzying highs.

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Up to Date
11:21 am
Fri June 1, 2012

Up To Date's Film Critics' 'Three To See'

From "Undefeated," one of Up to Date's indie, foreign, and doc film critics' "Three to See."
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By and and Cynthia Haines and Bob Butler

Looking for a great independent, foreign, or documentary film to see the Memorial Day holiday weekend of June 1-3, 2012? Up to Date's critics share their three favorite showing on area screens.

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Film
10:29 pm
Thu May 31, 2012

Changes At AMC Entertainment; Independent, Foreign & Documentary Film Reviews

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Credit Photograph © 2011 / Music Box Films
A scene from Monsieur Lazhar, the French-Canadian film that was nominated for this year's foreign language Oscar and is on the list of independent, foreign, and documentary films reviewed on Friday's Up to Date
For Greater Glory
Credit © 2011 - Freestyle Releasing
Bernie
Marley
Credit Fox Searchlight
Sound of My Voice
Credit Wilson Webb / Sony Pictures Classics
Darling Companion
Credit Dan Lindsay & TJ Martin, The Weinstein Company
Undefeated
Credit First Position Films
First Position
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By , and and Bob Butler and Cynthia Haines

Chinese company Wanda Group's recent purchase of Kansas City-based AMC Entertainment could have an effect on the way the company runs its business here and abroad.

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Performance
5:00 am
Thu May 31, 2012

'Pete 'n' Keely' Bring Retro Chic To Quality Hill Playhouse

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Credit Larry Levinson
Credit Larry Levinson
Credit Larry Levinson
Credit Stephen Sorokoff
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After a season of musical retrospectives saluting such composers as Rodgers and Hart, and Kander and Ebb, Quality Hill Playhouse is interrupting its regular programming for the Off-Broadway musical comedy, Pete 'n' Keely.

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Up to Date
11:19 am
Fri May 25, 2012

Up To Date's Film Critics' 'Three To See'

Credit Bess Kargman / Sundance Selects
Dancer Rebecca Houseknecht in "First Position"
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By and and Cynthia Haines

Looking for a great independent, foreign, or documentary film to see the Memorial Day holiday weekend of May 25-28, 2012? Up to Date's critics share their three favorite showing on area screens.

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Film
9:00 am
Fri May 25, 2012

'Undefeated' & 'First Position' Explore Challenges Of Youth

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Credit Dan Lindsay and T. J. Martin
Coach Bill Courtney and player in "Undefeated"
Credit Bess Kargman
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Two new documentaries arrive in Kansas City this week that look at how a young person's capability for moxie and dedication can be advantageous in two seemingly disparate fields: high school football and ballet.

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Film Review
2:03 pm
Wed May 23, 2012

Jack Black Finesses Black Comedy In 'Bernie'

Credit Deana Newcomb
Shirley MacLaine & a hopelessly devoted Jack Black in "Bernie"
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Director Richard Linklater's terrific new film, Bernie, unleashes actor Jack Black from his Kung Fu Panda pajamas only to find -  lest we'd forgotten - that he's a really good actor.

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Up to Date
9:59 am
Fri May 18, 2012

Up To Date's Film Critics' 'Three To See'

"Jiro Dreams of Sushi," a documentary about 85-year-old sushi master Jiro Ono, his business in the basement of a Tokyo office building, and his relationship with his son and eventual heir, Yoshikazu.
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By and and Cynthia Haines

Looking for a great independent, foreign, or documentary film to see the weekend of May 18-20, 2012? Up to Date's critics share their three favorite showing on area screens.

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