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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Art, Independent, Foreign, and Documentary Film

1:37 pm

Wed January 18, 2012

Film Review: "The Iron Lady"

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Meryl Street as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

By Steve Walker and Stephen Steigman

Meryl Streep has certainly played British before - "The French Lieutenant's Woman" and the underrated "Plenty," for starters - but is now figuratively playing Britain itself.

Performance

5:00 am

Tue January 17, 2012

Broadway Luminaries Bring New York Show to Kansas City

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By Steve Walker

Listen

When the musical "Evita" swept the 1980 Tony Awards, it triumphantly announced the arrival of two young actors - Mandy Patinkin and Patti LuPone - who would spend the next 30-plus years making remarkable choices in their theater, film, and television roles.

Performance

5:43 pm

Mon January 16, 2012

Web Extra: An Interview with Mandy Patinkin

By Steve Walker

Listen

"An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin" reunites two Tony Award®-winning performers for the first time since they performed together in the original Broadway cast of "Evita."

Performance

5:00 am

Fri January 13, 2012

Bullying And Disability Inform New Play For Young Audiences

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Credit photo: Steve Walker/KCUR

Actor Lorie Sparks and director Valerie Mackey

Credit photo: Steve Walker/KCUR

Actor Lorie Sparks and director Valerie Mackey

Credit photo: Steve Walker/KCUR

TYA co-founder Gene Mackey, Lorie Sparks, and director Valerie Mackey

Credit photo: Steve Walker/KCUR

A table reading for "Bully Bot the Robot and the Gang of Geeks."

Credit photo: Steve Walker/KCUR

By Steve Walker

Listen

Schools across the country are grappling with how to address bullying, a problem that's provoked some teenagers to suicide.

Two area theaters for young audiences are staging plays about bullying this month, and in the case of a new play at Theatre for Young America, specifically tackling bullying against the disabled with a disabled actor in its cast.

Fresh Way of Addressing Bullying

Film

11:12 am

Tue January 10, 2012

Kansas City Film Critics Circle Announces 2012 Awards

By Stephen Steigman and Steve Walker

On January 8th, 2012, the Kansas City Film Critics Circle announced its choices for the 45th Annual Loutzenhiser Awards, named for late local critic James Loutzenhiser.

Art, Independent, Foreign, and Documentary Film

8:32 am

Fri December 30, 2011

Film Review: "Le Havre"

By Steve Walker

In the true spirit of global cinema comes a charming and sweet French movie by a Finnish director (Aki Kaurismäki) about a young African refugee.

Performance

3:19 pm

Tue December 27, 2011

Teenage Playwright Wins National Competition

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Credit courtesy of Zachary Weaver

Zachary Weaver, 19, of Overland Park, Kan. He's one of the winning playwrights of the 2011 National Playwriting Competition.

Credit courtesy of Young Playwrights Inc.

Young Playwrights Inc. winners, 2010, including Zachary Weaver.

Credit courtesy of Zachary Weaver

Zachary Weaver at the Empire State Building, NYC.

By Steve Walker

Listen

Thirty years ago, legendary Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim might have sensed that the pool of up-and-coming playwrights was a bit lacking and founded Young Playwrights Inc. Based in New York, the program’s mission is to foster and mentor promising writers 18 and under. For the second year in a row, an Overland Park, Kan. teenager has made the cut.

Film

8:00 am

Fri December 23, 2011

Film Review: "The Artist"

By Steve Walker

To write off Michel Hazanavicius's black-and-white silent film as a gimmick is to miss a creative, touching, and beautiful movie about movies at the end of the silent film era. Jean Dujardin stars as Georges Valentin, a dashing silent hero - he looks like Gene Kelly crossed with Errol Flynn- whose career is about to be made obsolete by the talkies.

Art, Independent, Foreign, and Documentary Film

9:58 am

Fri December 16, 2011

Film Review: "Young Adult"

By Steve Walker

In Charlize Theron's Oscar-winning role in "Monster," she played a serial killer whose unbridled rage was targeted on others. In her new film, "Young Adult," she's also very convincing - and perhaps more unlikable - as a woman whose hurt is mainly turned inward.

Artists in Their Own Words

12:00 pm

Thu December 8, 2011

How Scrooge Actor Keeps "A Christmas Carol" Fresh

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By Steve Walker

Listen

In A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens depicted his iconic Ebenezer Scrooge as the original grumpy old man - someone whose mean streak is matched only by his unyielding pockets. That he becomes a gentler man by the close of the story is no surprise to anyone who's seen the Kansas City Repertory Theatre's production of the play over the past 31 years.

Film

12:23 pm

Fri November 25, 2011

Walker's Three to See: Melancholia

By Steve Walker

KCUR's Steve Walker shares his top movie picks of the week

By Steve Walker

Film

11:45 am

Wed November 23, 2011

Walker's Three to See: My Week With Marilyn

By Steve Walker

KCUR's Steve Walker shares his top movie picks of the week

By Steve Walker

Performance

3:24 pm

Wed November 9, 2011

Golden Anniversary for Kansas City Young Audiences

By Steve Walker

When Kansas City Young Audiences was founded in 1961, its mission was to provide children in local schools the chance to see and hear classical music performances they might otherwise never experience. The definition of arts education has expanded through the years.

By Steve Walker

Performance

3:03 pm

Wed November 9, 2011

WEB EXTRA: Interview with Idina Menzel

By Steve Walker

Tony Award winning performer Idina Menzel has had a career on stage, in films and television, and in music. This weekend, she joins the Kansas City Symphony to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kansas City Young Audiences.

By Steve Walker

Kansas City, Mo. – Performer Idina Menzel appeared in the original casts of "Rent" and "Wicked" (she won a Tony for Best Actress as Elphaba). Currently, she has a recurring role on the musical television program, "Glee."

Arts Education at a Young Age

Performance

8:57 am

Fri November 4, 2011

"Bump" Brings Faux Celebrity Back to The Fishtank

By Steve Walker

When President Obama announced two weeks ago that the United States would be withdrawing troops from Iraq by the end of the year, the other top news trending that week was that Lindsay Lohan would be posing for Playboy. The fact that the latter story garnered as much attention as the former didn't escape a trio of local theater artists who are returning to The Fishtank with a new play featuring the fictional troubled celebrity whose Kansas City debut last winter left her desperate for more attention.

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