By Kari Bowden Staff Reporter

For the last 18 months Tecumseh native Lise Lacasse has been living the high life appearing in five major motion pictures showcasing years of hard work and dedication.

Lacasse, 43, a graduate of St. Anne’s high school was the recipient of an outstanding achievement award in drama where she credits her drama teacher Jossre Cartier for helping her realize that acting, “was where I felt the most grounded”.

After graduation Lacasse joined the Windsor Feminist Theatre and then traveled to Toronto for a semester at Humber College and then to Los Angeles for a six-month stint with independent acting coaches.

From there she traveled back to Canada and attended the University of Windsor and got her degree in dramatic arts.

Lacasse’s first real acting gig was at Detroit’s Second City in 1994 where she met her husband Tom Schultz and later moved to Royal Oak, Michigan.

“Second City was a real stepping stone for me, they had only been around for a couple of years in New York and Los Angeles so it was fresh for the Detroit area and great for exposure”.

From there Lacasse has done many commercial spots, theatre performances and her personal favourite, voice-overs.

“I’m kind of a shy person and I like to keep my personal life private which seems odd when you are an actress for a living so voice-overs gives you the chance to work in the field without people really knowing that it’s me talking”.

With lucrative tax incentives to attract the film industry to Michigan, Lacasse has added roles on the silver screen to her resume. In April of 2008, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm signed new tax incentives offering a 40 per cent refundable tax credit for film production costs. This offer is currently the most desirable offer in all of the United States.

In the past two years Lacasse has found no hardship in landing roles, “Finding a good script is like having a really good meal, you have to really love it, so when you find it you stick with it”.

Screen credits

Currently, she is starring alongside fellow Canadian actor Michael Cera, Steve Buscemi and Ray Liotta in the teen flick Youth in Revolt where she plays a matron at a French school, a role where her French-Canadian roots helped her land the part.

“My major scene I speak entirely in French and I play a very stern and disciplined character. This was my first major movie to be released so it was a bit jarring at first to see your face that large on the movie screen,” she joked.

Yet to be released, Lacasse filmed back to back movies The Irishman starring Christopher Walken and Val Kilmer, followed by Trust a movie directed by David Schwimmer and stars Clive Owen and Catherine Keener.

“I had an ‘Oh my God’ moment when I filmed Cedar Rapids with Sigourney Weaver,” said Lacasse. “I remember sitting near her and thinking to myself how 23 years earlier I was watching Gorillas in the Mist and being in awe of her in that movie and now I’m starring alongside her”.

Mooz-Lum was the final movie filmed starring Danny Glover. In the past two years over a dozen movies have been filmed entirely in the Michigan area which is now being aptly dubbed Hollywood North.

As for the future Lacasse is auditioning for movie roles and stays current in her field by taking acting courses.

“I just want to work at my craft and acting is telling a story that needs to be told. Today, we live in a culture where people need to be entertained and I want to be a part of that”.  

By William Harris Staff reporter

When teacher Maggie Kobrosli saw test results showing literacy rates were declining among boys, she knew she had to do something about it.

That’s why the Grade 6 teacher at St. John the Baptist School in Belle River set about creating the ‘He Reads, He Scores’ program, aimed at getting the boys in her class more interested in reading as a pastime.

“We looked at what their interests were, and we got some materials together that they would be interested in picking up and reading,” she said Tuesday morning, as she prepared to kick off the third year of the program.

“It’s a library on wheels. Every book in the library is based on their interests, so they’ll want to pick up the material. Then they do activities based on what they’ve read.”

Results are already being seen, she said: EQAO reading results among boys have impoved at the school since the program started.

Kobrosli said comics and non-fiction books have proven to be the most popular among boys in her class. A curriculum that puts a heavy focus on reading fiction novels may turn some off of reading altogether, she noted.

Fran Hall, a school board administrator working with Kobrosli on the program, said other factors sometimes turn boys away from books.

“It’s sometimes looked at as more of a feminine activity,” she said. “I don’t think the boys have those role models to show them that men read as well.”

That’s why Kobrosli invited Shawn Cousineau, owner/operator of Rogues Gallery Comics in Windsor, and cartoonist Tony Gray joined the class on Tuesday to help share their love of comics–both reading and writing them.

“Guys are a little more hands-on,” Cousineau said. “That’s what comic books are all about. It’s how I started. I started with comic books, and that brought me to novels. It took some time, but it got me reading.”