A new online comedy show, Student Teacher, which is made and set in Galway has made it through to the third round of the RTE competition, Storyland, and is seeking the public’s continued support to get through to the next stage.
The show is based on a young man who leaves school early to become a teacher and ends up in charge of his old classmates. The creators of the show are keen to stretch their talents and showcase Galway; while the second episode focused on sports and GAA, the next installment will be focusing on local heritage centres with history and youthful tomfoolery getting extra attention.
Writer and director Giles Brody, an Athenry native, explained: “We’re really looking forward to people enjoying the new episode. It was a lot of fun to make and Athenry Heritage Centre very kindly let us film in their space. There’s plenty of similar centres in Ireland and we’re hoping the episode makes students want to visit them.”
Student Teacher mixes comedy and drama, a mix that has proved a hit with both teenagers and adults alike. The show presents a range of new comedy talent and the newest episode will feature John Donnellan (of recent Galway stage success Who Needs Enemies ). The cast is filled with the faces of new Irish comedy such as Neil Molloy (also a native of Athenry and who can be currently seen on Republic of Telly as Martin Muff ) as a teacher named Mr Clancy, as well as Kevin McGahern (Sim Card from Hardy Bucks ) and Kieran Lawless (noted Mayo comedian ) as students and Carol Tobin (from The Panel and Savage Eye ) as the scornful assistant vice principal.
With enough support and online votes, it is hoped that the cast and crew will be able to make another episode in Galway the details of which are being kept underwraps.
“We’ve covered sports, exams and school excursions, so we’ll be visiting schools around Galway to see what students think we should do next. We want to have as many people watch the episode as possible, which is why we’ve also added in Irish subtitles to the Youtube videos. We think it’s a great way to show off the language with new technology,” said Mr Brody.
Voting opens April 23 from 9am until April 29. To vote simply go to http://www.rte.ie/storyland and vote for Student Teacher to support the only show in the competition from the West.
