Dan's Leavers Blog

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 So, this will be my first and sadly last blog. I’m not the most amazing writer in the world but I shall give it my best shot. Its going to be very strange to not have yewtree to look forward to every week and its honestly been one of the hardest things to let go of.

I started sapphire company in the spring of 2016 after my sister had been at gold company for a couple of years. Little 12-year-old dan was very excited but at the same time very nervous to be starting something new that I’d never really tried before. I was completely oblivious to the fact that yewtree would become such a large part of my life. At sapphire company I was a part of a few performance including Hansel and Gretel (yes, the one with the banter birds and yes, I played one of them), neverland and a couple of summer celebration performances. One significant part of my time at sapphire was when people were auditioning to be part of 2017’s connections play ceasefire babies, which i was going to ask to be a part of but I decided not to because I had basketball games on Saturdays. I could’ve performed at the national theatre. Instead I played basketball for a team who lost every game of the season. Easily one of the worst decisions of my life.
After a couple of years, I was finally old enough to move up to gold company where my fondness of yewtree grew exponentially. I met some of my closest friends at gold company and had the biggest of laughs and just the best of times. I also got to take part in 2018’s connection play chaos which deserves its own paragraph…
Chaos was in a word… chaotic (creative I know, but it was). I was also my favourite performance I’ve ever been a part of. I played the role of a sexually confused teenage boy who was going through some tough times. It was an amazing roll that I got to really dig deep into and had a lot of fun to play. I also got to act alongside the famous Declan Kelly for the first time which was such a treat. Being my first connections play I learnt so many new skills that worked wonders for me in future plays but skills that I will carry with me all my life. Rehearsing and performing chaos are two things I won’t forget for a very long time.
I think it’s about time I start to wrap this up now so I just want to say thank you to everyone that I’ve ever acted alongside or talk to in a rehearsal or sat with in a best and worst circle or anyone that has even made up seconds of my yewtree experience. You lot have been like a family away from home and I’m going to miss seeing you all every week and it goes without saying but I want to say the biggest of thank you’s to Sarah. Its fair to say that I would’ve been a very different person if I had never met Sarah and I am extremely glad that I did because I feel that Sarah played a big part in helping me become the semi-decent human being that I am today. Anyway, I could go on forever about reasons to thank Sarah and everyone else that’s been a part of my yewtree experience so ill leave it there, love you all 🙂
Dan

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