EYT FEST
Annual festival of English Youth Theatre in Brussels
EYT FEST 26
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On the 6th, 7th and 8th of February 2026, our 120+ Senior students from Brussels and Antwerp will each perform an individual one-act show as part of EYT FEST 26! Our students will return to the beautiful Espace Lumen theatre in Ixelles, where the 2nd and 3rd editions of EYT FEST took place!
This year, we are celebrating 5 years of EYT FEST!
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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.
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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.
The Awards
The Diane and Paul Gray Trophy
1st Prize
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This trophy is awarded to the group with the highest score, as marked by the festival judges.
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It is named in honour of Diane and Paul Gray, beloved members of Brussels' theatre community and parental figures to EYT's founder, Lynne. It was kindly donated to EYT by Diane and Paul's son, Oliver.
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2025 Winner: DNA, Woluwe Seniors 2
The Silver Anniversary Cup
2nd Prize
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This trophy is awarded to the group with the second highest score, as marked by the festival judges.
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It was purchased by EYT to commemorate our 25th anniversary year.
2025 Winner: Gargantua, Stockel Seniors
The Third Place Cup
3rd Prize
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This trophy is awarded to the group with the third highest score, as marked by the festival judges.​
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2025 Winner: Brainstorm, Flagey Seniors 1
The Mike Cockburn Drama Cup
Best Performance
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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 donated to us by Dame Judi Dench after Mike's passing in 2005.
2025 Winner: Verónica Jara, as Verónica in Brainstorm
Best Supporting Performance
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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.
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2025 Winner: Louis Branch, as John Tate in DNA
WHAT'S ON?
FRIDAY 06/02
This is a fun play about depression and anxiety. It’s a collection of monologues and duologues from all over time and space exploring what about living in this world stops us from being happy and how we might go about tackling those problems.​
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The annual bonfire preparations are underway. Mikey’s coming home from the Centre and his sister Jamie cannot wait. But there is change in the air and not everyone’s ready for it. Jamie wants to reignite her father and uncle’s old conflicts, but Mikey and their friends must decide whether to take hold of their own destinies, or allow the ghosts of the past to dictate their futures.
A teenage girl has something growing inside her. She doesn't know what it is, but she knows it's not a baby. It expands. It has claws. Eventually it takes over the entirety of her body. No one must know about it. But she can't contain it forever. Sooner or later something's got to give...
SATURDAY 07/02
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When Mia’s dad suffers a traumatic brain injury and struggles to leave the house, she makes it her mission to find the cure for his symptoms.
Delving deeper and deeper into the world of neuroscience, Mia is desperate to make him better, but first she must contend with her own brain.
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A gripping journey through British history that shows how Britain was shaped and how connected it is with its past.
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Across seven centuries, small groups of children seek sanctuary in the same solid old wardrobe. It's the safest place they know – but is it safe enough?
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Leah and Kitty are blood sisters, best friends and more, growing up in London’s Jewish East End in the 1930s, who get caught up in the political turmoil caused by Oswald Mosley’s fascist Blackshirts.
SUNDAY 08/02
A marxist 'wakes up' in paradise, and once they get over the shock of the fundamental contradiction of everything they believe in, they get straight back to work, continuing their lifelong struggle for equality for all, even in death. This upbeat buoyant allegory asks the salient questions: who are we and what are we doing to ourselves? And what conditioner do you use on your hair?
A lyrical piece about existing on the cusp of growing up. Are we teenagers? Are we children? What are we?
Set in and around a swimming pool, The Changing Room follows a group of teens full of excitement, impatience and uncertainty, each with their own secret worries and desires for what comes next.
A group of survivors emerge from the wreckage of a boat crash. With dwindling supplies, the group has to decide whose vision to follow: will it be that of the enigmatic billionaire Benjamin Muscle, who promises a utopia of complete market freedom and a weird infatuation with the Roman Empire, or that of Vlad, a pompous union leader with a penchant for big words and a desire to call everyone “comrade”?
EYT Festival Award History
​EYT Festival 2025 (4th Edition), at Zinnema (Anderlecht)
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Best Supporting Performance
Louis Branch (EYT Woluwe Seniors 2), as John Tate in DNA
Other nominees: Vlad Constantin (EYT Stockel Seniors) (2nd nomination), ElzÄ— Kotryna KuraitÄ— (EYT Woluwe Seniors 1)
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Mike Cockburn Drama Cup for Best Performance
Verónica Jara (EYT Flagey Seniors 1), as Verónica in Brainstorm
Other nominees: Eva Bordes (EYT Woluwe Seniors 3), Milla Bošković (EYT Flagey Seniors 2)
The 3rd Place Trophy
Brainstorm, by Ned Glasier, Emily Lim and Company3 (EYT Flagey Seniors 1)
2nd Prize - The Silver Anniversary Cup
Gargantua, by Carl Grose (EYT Stockel Seniors)
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1st Prize - The Diane and Paul Gray Trophy
DNA, by Dennis Kelly (EYT Woluwe Seniors 2)​​
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EYT Festival 2024 (3rd Edition), at Espace Lumen (Ixelles)
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Best Supporting Performance
Ishika Sharma (EYT Woluwe Seniors 3) (2nd win), as Esmeralda Garcia in Dark Times At Cawdor High
Other nominees: Vlad Constantin (EYT Stockel Seniors), Tom Korytar (EYT Flagey Seniors 1), Antoni Wardyn (EYT Woluwe Seniors 1)
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Mike Cockburn Drama Cup for Best Performance
Nathaniel van Wanroij (EYT Waterloo Seniors), as Himself in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
Other nominees: Amaia Cereijido Adams (EYT Antwerp Seniors), Haizea Bengoa Castells (EYT Woluwe Seniors 2), Amber May (EYT Woluwe Seniors 2)
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)
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1st Place Trophy
Dark Times At Cawdor High, by Jake Vaughan (EYT Woluwe Seniors 3)​​​​​
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EYT Festival 2023 (2nd Edition), at Espace Lumen (Ixelles)
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Best Supporting Performance
Ishika Sharma (EYT Woluwe Seniors 2), as Sabela in The Red Death
Other nominees: Mairead Creedon (EYT Flagey Seniors 1)
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Mike Cockburn Drama Cup for Best Performance
Sunayana Kapoor (EYT Bascule Seniors) (2nd win), as Dean in Pronoun
Other nominees: Joshua O'Brien (EYT Flagey Seniors 1), Nathaniel van Wanroij (EYT Waterloo Seniors)
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2nd Place Trophy
The Wardrobe, by Sam Holcroft (EYT Woluwe Seniors 1)
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1st Place Trophy
The Red Death, by Stephen Challens (EYT Woluwe Seniors 2)
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EYT Festival 2022 (1st Edition), at Zinnema (Anderlecht)
Adjudicator's Award
Chorus of The Golden Door (EYT Woluwe Seniors 1)
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Best Supporting Performance
Louise Binand (EYT Waterloo Seniors), as Antler in Remote
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Mike Cockburn Drama Cup for Best Performance
Sunayana Kapoor (EYT Bascule Seniors), as Zara in Chaos​
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1st Place Trophy
Chaos, by Laura Lomas (EYT Bascule Seniors)