Pat Goyle Goes to School: a Stephen Parry Short Film

By Nick Valentine

Stephen Parry is an English teacher at Bowling Green High who has recently decided to make a new short film called Pat Goyle Goes To School. It follows the story of Pat Goyle who has a rough relationship with his teacher and decides to get revenge. Stephen Parry has directed numerous short films in the past, even selling two of his previous films to an on demand cable channel called “Shorts TV.” He started working at BGHS in July of 2022, and has decided to use the talent of students to create another film. Mr. Parry states, “This is probably my 30-40th short film, it’s my jam.” 

Mr. Parry goes into detail behind his upcoming film and his inspiration, saying, “This is about a teacher who kind of ticks off the wrong student, the quiet student, the one you never expect to misbehave… but this student is kind of gonna own the teacher by the end.” Mr Parry expresses how it can be frustrating as a teacher when students misbehave, but that this film is written from the perspective of a student that misbehaves.

Mr Parry continues by saying, “You’ll kind of be able to see the factors going into why a student could get ticked off by a teacher.” 

The main lead, Pat Goyle, has gone to none other than BGHS Sophomore Representative, Morgan Martin. Morgan has performed in many different productions, such as musicals The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, The Little Mermaid Jr., Mamma Mia!, and most recently has begun rehearsing for the 9 to 5 Musical, but she has never acted in a short film before. 

The circumstances surrounding her audition were interesting because although she knew it was for a short film, she did not know what the film was about. 

Morgan comments, “Ms. Berec was handing out monologues that Mr. Parry asked her to give out for the audition. I knew it was gonna be for the short film, I didn’t know what the short film was.” Mr. Parry himself doesn't quite know the amount of actors he’d like to have for it, explaining that he has a couple different scenarios in his head for how it could turn out. 

Mr. Parry elaborates, “I have two ideas, one idea is to have it set in a behavioral unit where imagine, like ALC if there were some students who misbehaved, there would maybe be about seven or eight in the classroom. Then there's the other idea of, let's do a full class, let's get like 25-30 kids in there.” 

He also says that depending on which idea he follows with changes the stake of the story. “In one version it's a behavioral unit, your kind of expecting somebody to misbehave, and then in the other one of dark horse that comes out of the shadows and throws everything for a loop, and there could be more chaos with more people in the room.”

When it comes to scheduling, a director must decide what dates work best for the success of the film and the convenience of the actors. However, according to Morgan, there is only one day scheduled for filming. “It’s one of the Fridays we don’t have school. I think March 15th is the only day and then it’s gotta be edited,” Morgan states. 

Mr. Parry explains, “We have a lot of really talented actors here are BGHS and they’re being utilized right now for the school musical, 9 to 5, and I’m super grateful that they have a strong theater program outside of school hours, so it’s a little hard to coordinate with that talent to pin down how and when we can do stuff.” 

He also mentions how the release of the film may depend on how quickly he wants it edited or if he may want to just let it sit. “A lot of poets will write a poem, they’ll shove it in a drawer, they’ll revisit it two months later and they’ll kind of rethink it.” He also discussed how busy his scheduling can be as a teacher and father.

Although starting with strong motivation to get his work shown, Mr. Parry has become more humble, explaining how he more enjoys the creating part of directing films.

 Mr. Parry states, “Before, I was maybe more concerned with my films getting seen by everybody, getting into film festivals, showing it at assemblies at school and I've been pretty well with that, I’m happy with what I've done. However, as I’ve gone on as a creator, I get really excited about smaller audiences, like even just myself as an audience where I’m like okay, let's experiment and let kind of surprise myself. You’re your own biggest critic, and I’ve kind of learned to be happy with where I’m at.” 

The outcome of how the film goes is as unpredictable as the wind and still an enigma to many who have barely heard of it. However, the experience that Mr. Parry and the actors have will undoubtedly create something worth watching.