Butties 2026

Thanks a lot to Róisín, Kevin and Rachel for hosting the Butties 2026 in their beautiful garden.

Awards and winners (in bold)

Best Props

  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (BLOC): Isabelle Deneyer & team
  • Grease (Green Parrot)
  • Homunculus / Trash Day (ECC)
  • Little Shop of Horrors (Smoosicals): Cat Harris & Isabelle Deneyer
  • Puss in Boots (ECC): Sandy Holderbach & team

Best Costumes

  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (BLOC): Tonia Jolly & team
  • Grease (Green Parrot, Mar 2026): Mary Williams, Elena Shcherbina
  • Homunculus (ECC): Mary Williams, Elizabeth Tanghe
  • Little Shop of Horrors (Smoosicals): Noémie Léonard, Chloé Quaresme
  • Puss in Boots (ECC): Fiona McGinnis, Sheila Hewitt, Hannah Riley, Jennifer Gee

Best Newcomer

  • Eleanor Poppy Reeve
  • Eleonora Fusco
  • Jacey Schult
  • Rosette Seck
  • Timothy Agotha

Best Set Design & Construction

  • Grease (Green Parrot): Richard Milsom, Peter Lemerle
  • Home, I’m Darling (ECC): Steve O’Byrne, Jeremy Larkin, Kateryna Sakhanevych, Conrad Toft, & team
  • Homunculus (ECC): Tom Mallan, Patrick Maher, Becky McKay, Erica Faller, & team
  • Little Shop of Horrors (Smoosicals): Richard Craddock
  • Puss in Boots (ECC): Michael de Prins, Conrad Toft, Oscar Feen, Steve O’Byrne & team

Best Producer

  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (BLOC): Alexander Just, Barbara Bauer
  • Grease (Green Parrot): Andrew Fisk, Rebecca Milsom
  • Little Shop of Horrors (Smoosicals): Emma Quaedvlieg
  • Puss in Boots (ECC): Chris Jones
  • The House of Bernard Alba (ITG): Tony Regan

Best Lighting

  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (BLOC): Chris Harding, Sergey Morozov, Andrey Kaplan
  • Grease (Green Parrot, Mar 2026): Lucas Steeno
  • Homunculus / Trash Day (ECC): Andy Williams, Maja Lay, Chris Nobbs
  • Little Shop of Horrors (Smoosicals): Andy Williams
  • Puss in Boots (ECC): Ant McCarthy, Louis Cloetens, Angelos Dimopoulos, Leo Jones & team

Best Stage Management

  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (BLOC): Marie Rousseaux
  • Glensheen (Smoosicals): Giselle Maksoud
  • Grease (Green Parrot): Boff Muir
  • Little Shop of Horrors (Smoosicals): Pierre Halloy
  • Puss in Boots (ECC): Andy Ing

Best Actor

  • Manu Peix: Johnny – Home, I’m Darling (ECC), Male Creek Chorus – How I Learned to Drive (ATC), Orin – Little Shop of Horrors (Smoosicals)
  • Michael Agotha: Willy Wonka – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (BLOC), Seymour – Little Shop of Horrors (Smoosicals)
  • Neale Mcdonald: Luka – The Fifth Step (ITG), Clay – Homunculus (ECC)
  • Paul Musiol: O’Hara – Friends Help You Move (ITG), Patrick – Love In a Glass Jar (ITG)
  • Rafael Plata: Puss In Boots – Puss In Boots (ECC)

Best Publicity and Design

  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (BLOC): Eva Konrad-Just, Tommaso De Re, Isabelle Deneyer, Emilia Kitsiou, & team
  • Glensheen (Smoosicals): Emilia Kitsiou
  • Grease (Green Parrot): Rebecca Milsom
  • Homunculus (ECC): Ilona Hendrix, Joachim Dos Santos, Katya Sakhanevych
  • Little Shop of Horrors (Smoosicals): Emilia Kitsiou

Kenway Lifetime Achievement Award

  • Conrad Toft
  • Mary Williams
  • Steve O’Byrne
  • Tanya Arler
  • Tim Middleton

Best Hair & Make-up

  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (BLOC): Valeria Enea, Janet Gray, Mel Ciriaco, Laraine Alder, & team
  • Grease (Green Parrot): Felipa Ferraz, Chloé Van Thielen
  • Homunculus / Trash Day (ECC): Jennifer Gee, Gemma Santasusana, Martha Mendez
  • Little Shop of Horrors (Smoosicals): Emilia Kitsiou, Maya Cañizares Jenni Gee & Hazel
  • Puss in Boots (ECC): Mel Ciriaco, Valeria Enea, Jayne Lindau, Gemma Santasusana

Best Sound

  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (BLOC): Andrew Fisk, Mihir Samavedam, Chenoa Burca
  • Glensheen (Smoosicals): Loren Wiklander, Steve O’Byrne
  • Grease (Green Parrot): Andrew Fisk, Anton Pavlov, Lucas Steeno
  • How I Learned to Drive (ATC): Karen El Haddad, Nastassia Maes
  • Little Shop of Horrors (Smoosicals): Andrew Fisk, Steve O’Byrne

Best Actress

  • Becky Mckay: Judy – Home, I’m Darling (ECC), Mimi – Homunculus (ECC)
  • Jacey Schult: Constance – Trash Day (ECC), Simmer – Homunculus (ECC)
  • Juliana Subach: Rizzo – Grease (Green Parrot)
  • Maja Lay: Li’l Bit – How I Learned To Drive (ATC)
  • Victoria Barbazanges: Mrs Teevee – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (BLOC), Marjorie- Glensheen (Smoosicals)

Best Director

  • Grease (Green Parrot): Kathy Lemerle, Jenny Clarkson, Steven De Mesmaeker
  • Home, I’m Darling (ECC): Kateryna Sakhanevych
  • Homunculus (ECC): Tom Mallan, Ashley Norman
  • Little Shop of Horrors (Smoosicals): Cath Howdle, Matt Carver, Jean Emmett
  • The House of Bernard Alba (ITG): Jane McBride

Golden Butt

  • Aravind Dhakshinamoorthy for juggling multiple projects at once and still succeeding
  • Cat Harris for the puppets in Little Shop of Horrors
  • Cath Howdle for creating Smoosicals, being involved in several shows and always being a class act
  • Conrad Toft for the sheer quantity of things he does on and off stage
  • Esther Pozo Vera for juggling directing, acting, chairing BSS & parenthood

Best Show

  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (BLOC)
  • Grease (Green Parrot)
  • Homunculus (ECC)
  • Little Shop of Horrors (Smoosicals)
  • Puss in Boots (ECC)

Fun facts and figures

20 shows included in the Butties this season, five of which were double bills:

  • Home, I’m Darling (ECC, Sep 2025)
  • The Gun Monologues (ATC, Oct 2025)
  • Knocked (BMC, Oct 2025)
  • Measure for Measure (BSS, Nov 2025)
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (BLOC, Nov 2025)
  • Friends Help You Move / The Fifth Step (ITG, Nov 2025)
  • Puss in Boots (ECC, Jan 2026)
  • How I Learned to Drive (ATC, Feb 2026)
  • Grease (Green Parrot, Mar 2026)
  • The House of Bernard Alba (ITG, Mar 2026)
  • Homunculus / Trash Day (ECC, Apr 2026)
  • Glensheen (Smoosicals, May 2026)
  • Little Shop of Horrors (Smoosicals, May 2026)
  • Anthony & Cleopatra (BSS, May 2026)
  • Love in a Glass Jar (ITG, May 2026)
  • Zero for the Young Dudes (EYT, May 2026)
  • The Real Lady Macbeth (EYT, May 2026)
  • Green-Eyed Monster / Othello in Forty Minutes (BSS, May 2026)
  • The Zoo / Trial by Jury (BLOC, Jun 2026)
  • Studio Nights – Bench / Together (ATC, Jun 2026)

Nine groups, including two new ones (in bold) for 2025-2026:

  • American Theatre Company: ATC
  • Brussels Light Opera Company: BLOC
  • Brussel Musical Creatives: BMC
  • Brussels Shakespeare Society: BSS
  • English Comedy Club: ECC
  • English Youth Theatre: EYT
  • Green Parrot: GP
  • Irish Theatre Group: ITG
  • Smoosicals

A few fun stats:

  • 1213 entries in the programmes for this year
  • 625 different people appeared in the programmes (and about 660 names, given all the misspellings and different versions!)
  • The person mentioned the most times was Andrew Fisk (15)
  • The person involved in the most shows was Steve O’Byrne (8)
  • The person involved with the most groups was Tommaso De Re (5)
  • The people who have been in the audience for most shows were Manu Peix & Conrad Toft (12)
  • 186 people voted in the Butties
  • 8 people tried voting for themselves!

Post expires on Wednesday August 12th, 2026