Patrick Welsh, 16, will appear in the independent film “Catch Your Mind” opening Friday
By Stephanie Prokop, Staff Writer
MANSFIELD — At first glance, Patrick Welsh seems like the typical teenager who likes to hang out with his friends, and is dealing with balancing school and extracurricular activities.
Unlike his classmates though, Patrick will make his debut on the silver screen this week in the upcoming independent film, “Catch Your Mind,” slated to open in select theaters Friday.
The film, produced by Swamy Kandan, with cinematography work done by Ravi Yadav, is about a high school boy, who despite a good upbringing falls in with the wrong crowd of friends, and is on a path to destructive behavior.
Things take a turn when Bruce Render (Patrick) is persuaded by his girlfriend Monica (Megan Beale) and his mother (Margaret DeAngelis) to join his high school NASA robotics team.
In real life, Patrick deals a lot with time management, as he attends Northern Burlington Regional High School and strives to attend as many acting auditions as possible.
Patrick, 16, attributes his role in the flick to a lot of hard work and “personal branding,” which he worked on tirelessly after school.
“Every day I would come home and search and search for auditions to go on,” he said.
While Patrick has his sights set on Hollywood, he said he got sound advice from his high school drama teachers, Scott Cooney and Valerie Gargus, at Northern Burlington County Regional High School.
A junior, Patrick has regularly participated in the high school’s annual theater performance. This year the school is in the beginning stages of producing “The Outsiders,” a show that Patrick anticipates he will play a small part in.
“Acting is something I’ve always had a passion for, but I really didn’t know where to start, so I talked to my teacher and started to learn a thing or two about finding an agent,” he said.
After weathering a bump in the road after finding out that his first agent wasn’t working out, he said he didn’t get down and out about it, he just simply persisted.
“I actually found the audition, and landed the role on my own,” he said.
The film, which was recorded in nearby Ambler, Pa., and Blue Bell, Pa., wasn’t too far away and Patrick said starring in an indie movie was an incredible experience. It offered a hands-on approach to the entire production process, he said.
“The whole experience was just a great learning experience,” he said. “I thought I knew (a pretty good amount about movies) but I was in shock about how much information I really took in,” he said.
After shooting wrapped, he was able to see a rough cut of the movie, something that Patrick acknowledges probably won’t happen in the future in larger-scale productions.
Even though shooting has wrapped, another fun component — movie premiere traveling — is upon him. Patrick will be touring around the tri-state area making appearances with fans of the movie makers’ work before the movie opens.
Traveling around may be tiring, he said, but it’s something that constantly keeps him motivated to appear in more movies.
“Catch Your Mind” will play at Movie City 8, 1655 Oak Tree Road, Edison, starting at 3 p.m. Friday.

