Tag: 40th

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Rambo actors to take part in Hope’s First Blood 40th anniversary event – Chilliwack Progress

Rambo actors to take part in Hope’s First Blood 40th anniversary event - Chilliwack Progress

Patrick Stack and Stephen Chang will be coming to Hope this fall for the 40th anniversary celebration of Rambo: First Blood.

Events will be held over the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend, Oct. 7-10.

Both Stack and Chang acted in the film.

Stack played the role of Clinton Morgan, a lieutenant in the U.S. National Guard who leads a group of men in search of Rambo after he escapes police custody.

His character is one every fan talks about because of his humour and the bumbling comedy he brings to his scene in the movie,” said Brian McKinney, one of the organizers of Hope’s Rambo celebration. “He’s just as fun to talk to in person and the fans are going to love him.”

Stick is also known for roles on hit 1980s TV shows like Simon and Simon, Dynasty, Hardcastle and McCormick, The Greatest American Hero and Cheers.

“When we contacted him he was like, ‘You know what Brian? This sounds like a blast,’” McKinney said. “Patrick and his wife Louise are coming and we’ve convinced them to stay the entire weekend, arriving in town on Friday afternoon and leaving Monday.”

Chang played the role of a Viet Cong commander in a flashback scene where he is shown torturing Rambo, dragging a bayonet rifle blade across his chest.

Though his role in Rambo is brief, the Kung-Fu Grandmaster has a following among Rambo fans.

The family of Brian Dennehy is also making the trip to Hope.

While details are still being finalized, McKinney said at least two of his daughters and their husbands, plus one of his grandsons, will be here. The grandson, William, is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who plans to produce a film on the 40th anniversary.

“William has already flown to Toronto to speak with Ted Kotcheff, who directed Rambo: First Blood,” McKinney noted.

While Stack and Chang both played the roles of Rambo antagonists, no one was more opposed to the title character than Dennehy’s Will Teasle, the sheriff of the fictional town of Hope, WA.

Teasle was vindictive and prone to abusing his power, and when he decided that the scruffy-looking Vietnam vet didn’t belong in his town, he went too far. Teasle allowed police officers under his command to push Rambo to a breaking point, and chaos followed.

Dennehy died in 2020 at the age of 81.

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eric.welsh@hopestandard.com
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William Head on Stage celebrates its 40th anniversary with events this weekend

William Head on Stage celebrates its 40th anniversary with events this weekend

ON STAGE

What: Prison Theatre Time Machine

Where: Salvation Army Addiction and Rehabilitation Centre, 525 Johnson St.

When: Thursday through Sunday

Tickets: $10 (suggested donation) from snafudance.com

Ingrid Hansen has been involved with William Head on Stage since 2006, when she volunteered to lead workshops for incarcerated artists at the federal correctional institution.

Canada’s longest-running prison theatre program had been in full swing for 25 years when the Victoria-based Hansen signed on, and was already the subject of national attention. But the SNAFU Society of Unexpected Spectacles co-founder has injected new life into W.H.o.S. productions in the years since — the latest being Prison Theatre Time Machine, which runs tonight through Sunday at the Salvation Army Addiction and Rehabilitation Centre on Wharf Street.

The project is a collaboration between members of W.H.o.S. and SNAFU, the dance and theatre company Hansen runs with Kathleen Greenfield. Hansen describes the event as “part theatre exhibit, part art installation, part shadow puppetry performance,” with a set co-designed and built by Jeni Luther and several incarcerated artists at the correctional institution.

The gallery exhibit and performance series is celebrating 40 years of prison theatre at William Head. Guided tours through the pop-up gallery include reams of memorabilia from four decades of W.H.o.S., including photos, posters, clothing, news articles, costume pieces, audio recordings and more.

“It’s a tribute to all the hard work and sweat which has gone into making these shows over the years,” Hansen said. “It really is a time machine.”

The company was unable to stage its annual play for the public in 2021, due to the pandemic, which would have marked its 40th year of operation. Hansen felt it was important to mark the date with an appropriate celebration, so Prison Theatre Time Machine was bumped forward one year to its spot on the calendar this weekend.

“Forty years of passing the baton from incarcerated artist to incarcerated artist, as they get paroled, is an achievement,” Hansen said.

W.H.o.S. has grown exponentially during the past 10 years, Hansen said. The artists involved have begun making their own work, collaboratively staging their own shows of original material (in the past, the program primarily tackled work by outside sources, from George Orwell and Bertolt Brecht to J. R. R. Tolkien and William Shakespeare). Attendees will have an opportunity to see the progression unfold this weekend, as Prison Theatre Time Machine is arranged by decade in chronological order.

There will also be music provided by residents of the Salvation Army Addiction and Rehabilitation Centre, Hansen said.

Guided tours of 10 people run every 45 minutes during operating hours. Attendees are required to pre-book, due to demand. Tickets are available for purchase by donation through snafudance.com.

mdevlin@timescolonist.com

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Events to mark 40th anniversary of Falklands war

Events to mark 40th anniversary of Falklands war

A series of lectures, memorials, exhibitions and other events will be launched in the coming days to mark the 40th anniversary of the end of the Falklands War.

The aim is to commemorate the sacrifices made in 1982 and to celebrate the progress made in the islands in the South Atlantic over the past 40 years.

The war lasted for 74 days, after Argentine forces invaded the Falklands on April 2 1982.

Three days later, a taskforce set sail from the UK, eventually involving almost 26,000 armed forces and 3,000 civilian crew.

Following several weeks of intense fighting, Argentine forces surrendered on June 14 1982, a date that has since been known in the Falkland Islands as Liberation Day and is a national holiday.

A total of 649 Argentine military personnel died as well as 255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders.

A Falkland Islands government spokesman said: “Falkland Islanders continue to be profoundly grateful for the strong support that the UK Government continues to provide, in acknowledging our right to self-determination and our choice to remain a UK Overseas Territory.

“Today, the Falkland Islands is a forward-looking community, with a strong sense of culture and heritage.”

Margaret Thatcher Day is celebrated every January 10 in the Falklands, the anniversary of the first visit by the former prime minister in 1983.

A street in the capital, Stanley, is named Thatcher Drive after her and there is a bust statue of her with the inscription: “They are few in number, but they have the right to live in peace, to choose their own way of life and allegiance.”

About 3,200 people live on the Falklands, with locally elected politicians responsible for all matters other than defence and foreign affairs.

Ian Scrivens (left) and Mark Eyles-Thomas, two Falklands veterans

Ian Scrivens (left) and Mark Eyles-Thomas, two Falklands veterans

The Falkland Islands government stresses that it funds its own activities without any recourse to the UK taxpayer, and provides a base for the UK’s armed forces as well as opportunities for UK companies to take part in major capital projects.

One legacy of the 1982 war was the vast tracts of minefields, with the last of about 13,000 mines finally fully cleared in October 2020.

Speaking at the celebrations to reclaim the fenced-off beaches around Stanley, Member of the Legislative Assembly Leona Roberts said: “The Falkland Islands are known for our amazing physical landscape, for our endless horizons, our outdoor spaces and unique scenery, but since 1982 that landscape has been scarred by the terrible legacy of war.

“We have had to teach our children about the dangers of minefields and have hoped but not quite dared to dream of the day when we would become mine-free.”

On June 14, a special commemoration will take place at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire for up to 10,000 people, mainly focused on veterans and their families.

Veterans will be formally presented with the Freedom of the Falkland Islands by a link to Stanley during the ceremony.

Events ranging from services and ceremonies to talks, exhibitions, conferences, receptions and competitions are being planned across the UK this year, including in Belfast, Bristol, Cardiff, Carlisle, Chorley, Coventry, Derby, Doncaster, Edinburgh, Fareham, Gosport, Hereford, Hull, London, Norwich, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Southampton and Whitby.

Other events include a photographic exhibition at the National Army Museum in Chelsea, west London, an essay competition for UK students to win a visit to the Falklands, and a series of Falklands-themed talks around the UK.

Falkland Islands Committee chairman and former member of the Legislative Assembly Phyl Rendell said: “I know how important the 40th anniversary will be for many people, which is why we need to make every effort to ensure that we mark the occasion with due respect, and pay tribute to the courage shown and the sacrifices made back in 1982.

“As a nation, we have moved forward substantially in the past 40 years and it is right that we celebrate how, in exercising our liberty, we have built a prosperous and peaceful country – one which has not simply survived, but thrived.

“We want to approach this milestone with optimism for the future. We now have a younger generation, born after 1982, who understand how they have benefited from the bravery of others and will continue to build on that legacy.”