EYT+
A PERFORMANCE GROUP FOCUSED ON CREATING EXCELLENT THEATRE
Take part in excellent youth theatre!
​
EYT+ gives students who are interested in taking acting seriously the chance to create high quality theatre, for an audience of both their friends and families, but also members of the wider theatre community.
​
Unlike EYT's other classes, students have to audition to take part in EYT+. The primary factors that are taken into account are work ethic, commitment, ability to work in a team, and acting ability. All EYT Senior students can audition.
​
Each year, the group takes on a new play in February, and performs it in May. They also take part in skill building classes, which boost their skill set and prepare them for the world of professional acting.
2025 Production: Cawdor High
​
All her life, Beth McKenzie has wanted to be popular. Although she’s not disliked, she feels anonymous. One day, three weird emo girls hand her a book that prophesies her ascension to the throne of Prom Queen. Alongside her friends Ellie and Beau, Beth uses her newfound confidence to rise up the school’s food chain, but begins to lose herself in the process. Loosely based on Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”, with an 80s teen flick twist.
​
Cawdor High is an original script by Jake Vaughan. It was first performed as a one-act play during EYT Festival 2024, where it won the Best Play Award, and the Best Supporting Performance Award for Ishika Sharma, and was widely acclaimed by the judges and festival goers. This new, feature-length version, will be performed in May 2025 in both Brussels and Amsterdam.​ There are 20 parts available, and auditions will be held in December 2024.
What is EYT+?
EYT+ is the natural evolution of EYT's previous festival group. Every few years, EYT gets invited to participate in FEATS, an adult amateur theatre festival, and takes a group of students to compete against other English-language groups across Europe. With EYT+, we can offer Senior students the experience of taking part in the highest level of drama at EYT, even in those years when we are not invited to participate in FEATS.
​
How does it work?
EYT+ offers an opportunity for EYT students to participate in additional theatre classes, deepening their knowledge of theatre and building on their drama skill set. It also offers them the chance to take part in excellent theatre that rivals the best English-language theatre in Brussels. Each year, the group will put together a play to be performed in Brussels for an audience of not just their families and friends, but also for other members the Brussels theatre scene. This can be done in one of the following ways: either it can be performed at a small theatre for a run of multiple nights, or at a larger theatre for a shorter run, or as part of a theatre festival.
​
​
When and where are the sessions?
​
Sessions are held on Sunday afternoons at The Umbrella Factory (209 Boulevard Léopold II, 1080 Brussels), and are 4 hours long. During the first hour, students take part in a class that helps build their skills in a specific theatrical discipline (for example: voice training, stage movement, stage combat...), and for the following three hours they rehearse their play. The program begins in February (after the EYT Festival) and finishes with the performance, in late Spring.
​
​
Who can take part?
All EYT Senior students can audition to be in the EYT+ program. Every year we hold new auditions, so just because a student was in the program one year, doesn't mean they are automatically re-admitted the next year. Auditions are held in December, and the following criteria are taken into account: acting ability, commitment, work ethic and ability to work in a team.
PREVIOUS PRODUCTIONS
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding (2024)
Adapated for the stage by Nigel Williams
Directed by Glenn Vaughan
​
A plane carrying a group of school children crash lands on a deserted island. With no adult survivors, the kids are forced to fend for themselves. At first they co-operate, but when they split into two separate camps, their society falls into disarray, leading to a disturbing examination of human nature and a chilling conclusion.
​
The cast of 14 was selected from 37 auditionees, and specifically chosen for their work ethic, commitment, ability to work in a team and acting ability. Some of the actors are EYT veterans who've gathered lots of experience, and others are in their first year at EYT but have shown great promise and performance skills!
The show was performed to great acclaim in The Warehouse Studio Theatre, Brussels, from the 21st to the 23rd of May 2024. After its run in Brussels, the show moved to Amsterdam for a final performance on the 25th of May 2024 at the Badhuistheater.
.jpg)
Chaos, by Laura Lomas (2023)
Directed by Jake Vaughan
​
A girl is locked in a room. A boy brings another boy flowers. A girl has tied herself to a railing. A boy doesn't know who he is. A girl worries about impending catastrophe. A woman jumps in front of a train. A boy's heart falls out his chest. A butterfly has a broken wing.
Chaos is a symphony of dislocated and interconnected scenes. Characters search for meaning in a complicated and unstable world. Bouncing through physics, the cosmos, love and violence, they find order in the disorder of each other.
Chaos was performed at FEATS 2023 in Bad Homburg, Germany, where the cast's stage discipline and acting ability was widely acclaimed, both by the audience and the festival's adjudicator, Ben Humphrey.
Awards and nominations:
FEATS 2023: Winner of the 3rd Place Trophy. Nominated for Best Stage Management, Best Stage Presentation and the Adjudicator's Discretionary Award. Ruby May nominated for Best Actress.
Boom, by Vincent Eaton (2022)
Directed by Jake Vaughan
​
Three people decide to blow up the world. Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom! They succeed.
X has turned herself into a vehicle for total destruction and final annihilation. Y used to be an exploiting capitalist bastard, but now she wants to blow it all up. Z loves puppy dogs with fluffy ears, and is happy to be a part of the destruction. They have no names. They have no history. And now, they have a bomb.
Boom is a short play for three people, and was performed by Grace Wolfe, Ishika Sharma and Louise Binand at The Warehouse Studio Theatre in Schaerbeek, Brussels, as well as FEATS 2022 in Luxembourg. Léa De Quinnemar, Alice Nunes-Burns and Anna Catinca Popovici also served as understudies for the main cast.
Due to COVID19, it was decided to make FEATS non-competitive in 2022, so Boom was not eligible for any awards. It was however very well-received by the FEATS community, and received a lot of praise from the festival's evaluator.
4.48 Psychosis, by Sarah Kane (2018)
Directed by Jake Vaughan and Colleen Cameron
​
Named for the early morning time that playwright Sarah Kane would wake, 4.48 Psychosis is an in-depth and viscerally honest look at the experience of major depressive disorder.
The play is usually interpreted as an expression of the experience of clinical depression, a disorder from which Kane suffered. She died by suicide after writing the play, before its initial performance. Contemplation and discussion of suicide are prominent and while there is no strict narrative or timeline, certain issues and events are clearly dealt with: deciding whether to take medication to treat depression, the desires of the depressed mind, the effects and effectiveness of medication, self-harm, suicide and the possible causes of depression.
This play was explored by the Graduate group, a group of EYT students aged 17-21, and performed in December 2017 after the EYT Senior show, and then again at FEATS 2018 in Antwerp.
Awards and nominations:
FEATS 2018: Alicia Desmedt nominated for Best Actress
GALLERY
