BIMM Dublin Students Reflect on ‘Sing Street’ Starring Roles
If you’ve yet to see Sing Street, get to your nearest cinema!
Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker John Carney, the comedy-drama is set in 1980s Dublin and follows an aspiring teen musician who has dreams of making it big. It’s a great coming of age movie that has even received high praise from U2’s Bono.
A while ago we broke the news of BIMM Dublin tutor Ciaran Bradshaw‘s involvement with the film, mixing the feature-length soundtrack. What you may not realise is the movie also features two very talented BIMM Dublin students; Percy Chamburuka and Mark McKenna.
Both students are fantastic in the film, putting in stellar performances and really making the roles their own. And it seems we weren’t the only ones us to pick up on their acting talents.
“In addition to demonstrating his potential as an actor, Sing Street allowed McKenna to showcase his musical chops,” wrote The Irish Independent.
Mark, who plays multi-instrumentalist Eamon in the film, sat down with BIMM Dublin to talk about the role.
“I saw an open casting invitation on Facebook and one of my friends convinced me to go along with her to the audition. I got recalled twice over a two-month wait and was finally picked for the character Eamon in July 2014,” said the BIMM CPD Songwriting student.
“It was my first time being in a movie, and it gave me a really good insight into the amount of work that goes into making a movie. It was surprising to see how many people work behind the scenes. I also learned a lot about both acting and music while on set.”
He added: “All musicians want to be actors and all actors want to be musicians; I was lucky enough to do both.”
Mark, who hopes to pursue a career in acting alongside music, told us about life on set and spending time with fellow BIMM student Percy.
“Every day on set was memorable,” he quipped. “John Carney and all the lads in the band were great fun to be around. One of the lads was Percy Chamburuka, who also attends BIMM Dublin.”
In Percy, the film’s director found a talented individual with acting skills and the musical experience to back it up – just check out his live performance of ‘Profound Trees’.
Also a CPD Songwriting student here at BIMM Dublin, Percy is an up and coming young rapper (in real life), and has previously performed alongside a whole host of Hip-Hop heavyweights, including Gangstarr Foundation and Columbia Records UK’s recent signing Hare Squead.
And if that wasn’t enough, he’s also played in front of 30,000 people in an MMA Octagon Arena at York Hall in England.
Percy hit his first audition out of the park and was lucky enough to be invited back for a second audition in front of the film’s director, where he landed the role of Ngig.
“I was sent to audition in front of the director who loved it enough to give me the part that same day,” he revealed.
We asked Percy what he loved most about the silver screen and the lessons he’s learned since starring in ‘Sing Street’.
“I guess what sticks out when I think about working on the film is the lavish lifestyle you’re given when on a big budget film set”, he explained.
But the rising star admits he’s staying grounded.
“I took away some degree of commitment, hard work and general acting skills that I never knew about before.”
We’re so excited to see a film that celebrates Dublin’s rich and vibrant music scene. Congratulations to Mark, Percy and Ciaran on their involvement with the film!
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