FEATS

FESTIVAL OF EUROPEAN ANGLOPHONE THEATRICAL SOCIETIES

What is FEATS?

FEATS is an annual international theatre festival, hosted in a different European city each year since 1976. EYT has been participating in FEATS since 2004, and is to this day the only youth theatre group to have participated in this predominantly adult festival.

Each year, 12 English-speaking amateur dramatics groups compete to win first prize. The winning show then has the option of going on to compete in the British All-Winners Festival in the UK.

With nearly 40 groups eligible to compete, and 12 groups competing each year, EYT gets invited to participate on average once every 3 years.

2023 Production: CHAOS by Laura Lomas

This year, FEATS will take place in Bad Homburg, Germany (near Frankfurt), and EYT will be taking its production of Chaos by Laura Lomas.

Our production of Chaos has 17 parts, and is full of complex monologues, lighting effects and soundscapes, and relies on creating a strong ensemble who work together to bring to stage the discordant, confusing and profoundly chaotic experience of being a teenager. From over 30 auditions from across the youth theatre's 6 Senior groups, we've built a cast that we feel meets FEATS's very high standard of drama.

Who gets to represent EYT at FEATS?

Unlike with all other EYT projects, we hold auditions for our FEATS productions. All EYT Senior students can participate in these auditions, but only a limited number of them will be able to participate in the play.

We do this for multiple reasons:

- We have over 60 Senior students, which is too many to take to any individual festival

- All production members are working for no pay, and no student has to pay to be in the cast
- Since there is usually travel involved, we limit the number of students to keep the project manageable

- FEATS is a prestigious competition, and we view participation in this festival as a special privilege

The number of parts available will heavily depend on the play. Sometimes this number can be very small (Boom, our 2022 play, had a cast of 3), and sometimes it can be very big (Chaos, our 2023 play, has a cast of 17).

Since we get invited on average once every three years, all Senior students should have the chance to audition for our FEATS play at least once during their time with us.

Our Past FEATS Productions

We have participated 10 times in FEATS since our first appearance in 2004. In our ten appearances, we have amassed a total of 4 awards and 7 nominations (including 4 nominations for Best Actor / Best Actress).

In order, the shows were:

2004 (Antwerp): A Slackers' Guide To Western Theatre, by Stephen Challens
Directed by Lynne Vaughan
Winner of Best Original Script Award and Adjudicator's Discretionary Award

2005 (Hamburg): Gum & Goo, by Howard Brenton
Directed by Lynne Vaughan
Winner of 3rd Place Award and Adjudicator's Discretionary Award
Siân Docksey nominated for Best Actress, Patrick Griffin nominated for Best Actor

2006 (Ettelbruck, Luxembourg): Roy, by Stephen Challens
Directed by Stephen Challens

2008 (Stockholm, Sweden): Runaways, by Stephen Challens
Directed by Stephen Challens

2009 (Brussels, Belgium): The Education of Skinny Spew, by Howard Brenton
Directed by Chris Reidy
Edward Prescott nominated for Best Actor

2012 (Antwerp, Belgium): Gargantua, by Carl Grose
Directed by Glenn Vaughan

2013 (The Hague, Netherlands): Bassett, by James Graham
Directed by Jake Vaughan

2016 (Brussels, Belgium): Remote, by Stef Smith
Directed by Lynne Vaughan
Alicia Desmedt and Ewan Craig nominated for Best Actress and Best Actor