A Georgia middle school theatre teacher who helped shape two Tony nominees is now getting a Tony Award himself.
Freddie Hendricks, a theatre teacher at Utopian Academy for the Arts in Ellenwood, Georgia, and founder of the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta, will receive the special Tony Award that honours educators.
“It feels really great to know that they’re succeeding on that level and that I had a little to do with it,” he told The Associated Press ahead of Monday’s announcement. “It’s just a beautiful thing.”
Hendricks has worked as an arts educator for more than 30 years and was an honorable mention for the special Tony in 2023 and 2024. He estimates between 20 and 30 of his students have gone on to Broadway, including Tony-nominated Saycon Sengbloh and “Saturday Night Live” star Kenan Thompson.
At this year’s Tony Awards, sound designer Justin Ellington and performer-producer Kandi Burruss have nominations. Hendricks helped both along the way.
“I’ve always had a passion for theater. I’m an actor myself and when I got into teaching years and years and years and years ago, it became my passion,” he says.
Ellington, who received his third Tony nomination for “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” said Hendricks was “the first person to show me the importance of storytelling in theater.”
Ellington said he watched shy students in Hendricks’ class become featured singers or performers by the end.
Hendricks graduated from Lincoln Memorial University in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication arts. He created “Soweto, Soweto, Soweto: A Township is Calling!” and has also taught in Europe and South Africa.
He is the artistic director, writer and teacher for the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta, which includes students aged 11 to 20. At Utopian, Hendricks trains students in a “rigorous, ensemble-based program of acting, movement and storytelling.”
“A lot of kids these days, they don’t love themselves,” he says. “They don’t know who they are, for one thing. And I just kind of start with that and then go with loving themselves for who they are and letting them know up front, ‘In here, this is a safe space. You’re loved in here. You’re accepted in here. This is your home.’”
Hendricks is known for asking students to bring in topics they care about, including poverty, gun violence, teen pregnancy, apartheid and AIDS, then building performances around their ideas and perspective.
“That just empowered these kids so much,” Ellington says. “Not only empowered them from an internal place of owning who you are, but empowering them as storytellers and showing the importance of storytellers.”
The annual Excellence in Theatre Education Award, presented by the Tony Awards and Carnegie Mellon University, recognises US educators who have “demonstrated exemplary impact on the lives of students and who embodies the highest standards of the profession.”
The award comes with a $10,000 prize for Utopian Academy and a pair of tickets to the Tony Awards ceremony and gala in New York City on June 7. Hendricks’ students will also receive a visiting masterclass taught by Carnegie Mellon drama professors.
A panel of judges from the American Theatre Wing, The Broadway League, Carnegie Mellon and other theatre industry leaders selects the winner from candidates submitted by the public.
Hendricks said he teaches theatre skills including collaboration, listening, interpreting, storytelling, taking criticism and checking your ego, even for students who do not go on to arts careers.
“I just want to let them know that life is great out there and the key to success is to never stop the pursuit of it. Whatever you want, keep going. It’s not going to happen tomorrow. It’s not going to happen next year. Or if it does, you may lose it, but it will come again if you continue to pursue whatever it is that you desire.”
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