EYT Festival 2025
​
On the 7th, 8th and 9th of February 2024, our 120+ Senior students from Brussels, Antwerp and Waterloo each performed an individual one-act show as part of the EYT Festival! Our students got to tread the boards at the beautiful Zinnema theatre in Anderlecht, where our first ever EYT Festival took place!
This year, we also celebrated 25 years of EYT!
What is the EYT Festival?
The EYT Festival is a week-end of celebration, where the students of English Youth Theatre get to perform on a big stage, in front of a large audience, alongside their classmates.
Each Senior group (ages 14-18) prepares a one-act play from September to February to be performed at the Festival. We take care to ensure that each group performs a different type of play, varying the styles and themes to create an interesting mix of shows. The students are also encouraged to watch each other's performances, fostering a sense of community between them.
At the end of each night, the Festival Judges take the stage and give a short, but detailed and constructive critique of each show they have seen, offering the students praise, insight and advice on how to improve in their future performances. At the end of the Festival, the Judges give out awards for Best Show, Best Performer, Best Supporting Performer and more, giving the students incentive to give their all to their performance.
​
Taking part in the EYT Festival is an amazing experience for the students. They get to meet the other groups, learn how to work in a professional theatre environment, and bond over their shared experience. Additionally, by grouping the shows together into a festival format, we ensure that the students get the chance to perform to a much larger audience than if they simply performed their own shows separately.
This year's shows
Friday 7th of February
​
​Jasmine and her sister Chloe are ambassadors for the manifesto and their father is the chief cosmetic surgeon. It is Silas’ birthday and the time has come for his transformation. The problem is, Silas can think for himself, and believes the manifesto is designed to make teenagers so unhappy about their bodies that they accept they need change.
The Beauty Manifesto by Nell Leyshon
EYT Flagey Seniors 2
.png)
​
The play centres on an ordinary Tuesday that suddenly turns very weird indeed when a tear rips across the sky over the school yard. Not only that, but it starts sucking up pupils and staff while at the same time raining down a whole new set of people. But then, that’s what happens when parallel worlds collide!
Confusion reigns as the ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ try to work out what is going on. How are Ash and Magpie identical? Can Billy cope with having his sister back? Who is Franky?
Tuesday by Alison Carr
EYT Woluwe Seniors 1
​
Antler steps out of her front door and throws her phone to the ground. She stamps on it. Then she climbs the tallest tree in the park. She doesn't want to be found, not by anyone.
Over the course of one autumnal evening, seven teenagers' lives intertwine as they make their way through the park. And everything that seemed normal becomes extraordinary.
Remote by Stef Smith
EYT Waterloo Seniors
Saturday 8th of February
​
Inside every adolescent brain, 86 billion neurons connect and collide to produce the most frustrating, chaotic and exhilarating changes that will ever happen to us. Brainstorm is a unique theatrical investigation into how teenagers' brains work, and why they're designed by evolution to be the way they are.
​
The play is designed to be created and performed by a company of teenagers, drawing directly on their personal experiences.
Brainstorm by Ned Glasier, Emily Lim and Company Three
EYT Flagey Seniors 1
​
Type: Comedy / Drama
Age suitability: 13+ years old
Someone has a recurring dream. It’s a bit weird. There are fish, chickens, cows, who all look and sound like people – people who look kind of familiar. And there’s a butcher, killing people. And the dream feels like a circle. They can’t get free of it – it’s like a line eating its own arse.
​
Warning: This play contains strong language, mature themes and disturbing stage imagery.
(Circle Dreams Around) The Terrible, Terrible Past by Simon Longman
EYT Bascule Seniors
​
When Mr. and Mrs. Mungus have a baby it isn’t the bouncing blue-eyed boy they were hoping for. After a two-and-a-half year pregnancy, Mini Mungus gives birth to a monster – one with an accelerated growth rate and an insatiable appetite for anything that moves (including joggers). But when sinister military scientists become intent on cloning an army of giant babies from the child, he breaks his chains and escapes. The world can only watch in horror as he embarks on learning how to walk and rampant destruction.
Gargantua by Carl Grose
EYT Stockel Seniors
Sunday 9th of February
​
1897. Mankind is on the cusp of vast technological change, scientific mastery and media innovation. Poised between traditional beliefs, the threat of the unknown and the shock of the new world, an altogether darker fear is emerging. As a new shadow looms large over England, a small group of young men and women, led by Professor Van Helsing, are plunged into an epic struggle for survival.
​
Warning: This play contains scary moments and loud sound effects.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
EYT Woluwe Seniors 3
​
Some teenagers do something bad, really bad, then panic and cover the whole thing up. But when they find that the cover-up unites them and brings harmony to their once fractious lives, where's the incentive to put things right?
DNA explores themes like groupthink, peer pressure, bullying, grief and murder. It is a core set-text for UK drama courses in the UK.
Warning: This play contains strong language, mature themes and disturbing stage imagery.
DNA by Dennis Kelly
EYT Woluwe Seniors 2
​
We may not think about it, but so much of our lives are spent in bathrooms (seriously—more than a year!). From private time with a favorite floating bath toy to the daily before-school picnic with friends to the invention of a new dance craze, the teens of this vignette-style, flexible-cast comedy are growing up…in the throne room.
The Throne Room by Jonathan Dorf
EYT Antwerp Seniors
The Diane and Paul Gray Trophy
1st Prize
​
This trophy is awarded to the group with the highest score, as marked by the festival judges.
​
It is named in honour of Diane and Paul Gray, beloved members of Brussels' theatre community and parental figures to EYT founder Lynne. It was kindly donated to EYT by their son, Oliver.
The Silver Anniversary Cup
2nd Prize
​
This trophy is awarded to the group with the second highest score, as marked by the festival judges.
​
It was purchased by EYT to commemorate our 25th anniversary year.
The Third Place Cup
3rd Prize
​
This trophy is awarded to the group with the third highest score, as marked by the festival judges.​
The Mike Cockburn Drama Cup
Best Performance
​
This trophy is awarded to the actor or actress who gives the best individual performance of the festival, as decided by the festival judges.​
It is named in honour of Mike Cockburn, co-founder of EYT. It was donate to us by Dame Judi Dench after Mike's passing in 2005.
Best Supporting Performance
​
This trophy is awarded to the actor or actress who gives the best supporting performance of the festival, as decided by the festival judges. Unlike the Mike Cockburn Drama Cup (which can be won by any performer), this award is reserved to actor​s in supporting roles.
EYT Festival 2024: Photo gallery
EYT Festival - Awards History
​
EYT Festival 2025 (4th Edition), at Zinnema (Anderlecht)
​
Best Supporting Performance
Louis Branch, as John Tate in DNA
Other nominees: Vlad Constantin (Gargantua), ElzÄ— Kotryna KuraitÄ— (Tuesday)
​
Mike Cockburn Drama Cup for Best Performance
Verónica Jara Gomez, as Verónica in Brainstorm
Other nominees: Eva Bordes (Dracula), Milla Bošković (Remote)
3rd Place Trophy
Brainstorm, by Ned Glasier, Emily Lim and Company3
EYT Flagey Seniors 1
2nd Place Trophy
Gargantua, by Carl Grose
EYT Stockel Seniors
​
1st Place Trophy
DNA, by Dennis Kelly
EYT Woluwe Seniors 2
​
​
​
​
EYT Festival 2024 (3rd Edition), at Espace Lumen (Ixelles)
​
Best Supporting Performance
Ishika Sharma (2nd win), as Esmeralda Garcia in Dark Times At Cawdor High
Other nominees: Antoni Wardyn (Astynax, The Trojan Women), Tom Korytar (Pablo, Variations), Vlad Constantin (Himself, Complete Works...)
​
Mike Cockburn Drama Cup for Best Performance
Nathaniel van Wanroij, as Himself in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
Other nominees: Amber May (Harri, The Snow Dragons), Amaia Adams (Sally, Puppy Love), Haizea Bengoa Castells (Andromache, The Trojan Women)
3rd Place Trophy
The Trojan Women, by Euripides
EYT Woluwe Seniors 1
2nd Place Trophy
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield
EYT Waterloo Seniors and EYT Stockel Seniors
​
1st Place Trophy
Dark Times At Cawdor High, by Jake Vaughan
EYT Woluwe Seniors 3
​​
​​
​​
​​
EYT Festival 2023 (2nd Edition), at Espace Lumen (Ixelles)
​
Best Supporting Performance
Ishika Sharma, as Sabela in The Red Death
Other nominees: Frankie Creedon (Headmistress, Cloud Busting)
​
Mike Cockburn Drama Cup for Best Performance
Sunayana Kapoor (2nd win), as Dean in Pronoun
Other nominees: Joshua O'Brien (Davey, Cloud Busting), Nathaniel van Wanroij (X, Boom)
​
2nd Place Trophy
The Wardrobe, by Sam Holcroft
EYT Woluwe Seniors 1
​
1st Place Trophy
The Red Death, by Stephen Challens
EYT Woluwe Seniors 2
EYT Festival 2022 (1st Edition), at Zinnema (Anderlecht)
Adjudicator's Award
Chorus of The Golden Door
​
Best Supporting Performance
Louise Binand, as Antler in Remote
​
Mike Cockburn Drama Cup for Best Performance
Sunayana Kapoor, as Zara in Chaos​
​
1st Place Trophy
Chaos, by Laura Lomas
EYT Bascule Seniors