Below is a blog written by Iain Macdonald, the director of Brian Friel’s ‘Winners’ and the one of the cast of ‘Losers’. Iain will also be recording a video for Tramp TV, detailing his thoughts, ideas and the process of Winners. Enjoy. Tim 
Almost a month to go until the first performances and I’m happy so far with the way Winners is going. Whenever I choose to direct a play I always become so involved with the text that quite often I’m drained before the rehearsal even begins. This is a fault of my own which I am trying to rectify with Winners. Marc and Ellyn are a great couple on stage and I know that they will impress the audience when the performance days come. For my part I feel I’ve not yet had a chance to direct. I’m so eager to get the play blocked first before I start ‘directing’. We have a rehearsal planned for tomorrow which I hope will be my time to start directing and help to awaken the characters in the piece. I’m finding it difficult to juggle my time along with university and playing Andy in Losers but I feel there is an advantage to this which is that my mind never really gets to shut off from either play. The play itself is funny, sad and heart warming. A fear of mine is that the play is dated but the cast protested and told me that love never changes be it in Ireland 50 years ago or today. I’m so glad the cast believe in the piece, more incredibly at this early stage. I managed to get a piece of original music written by a musical director of mine who sadly passed away in 2004 to play during the closing minutes of Winners. It’s a truly lovely piece which I can’t wait to share with our audiences. Iain.