Freddie Hendricks, a middle school theatre teacher at Utopian Academy for the Arts in Ellenwood, Ga. took home the 2026 winner of the Excellence in Theatre Education Award presented by the Tony Awards in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University on June 7.
Hendricks is the 10th theatre arts teacher to receive the award. He has been an arts educator for more than 30 years and was an honorable mention for the EITEA in 2023 and 2024.
The EITEA recognizes a K-12 theatre educator in the U.S. who has demonstrated exemplary impact on students’ lives and who embodies the highest standards of the profession. Hendricks will receive $10,000 for Utopian Academy and tickets to The Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall and the gala that follows at Rockefeller Center. His students will also receive a visiting master class taught by CMU Drama professors later this year.
“I am so grateful for this honor. I tell my students, ‘You’re born great. When you find your passion, you’re living in your greatness, and the next step is to be greater,'” Hendricks said. “I found my passion. I believed. I had faith. My mantra is this: ‘Greatness is inevitable when focus marries passion, and the desire is as strong as the need.'”
At Utopian, Hendricks trains students in a “rigorous, ensemble-based program of acting, movement and storytelling.” Their outreach in the community includes partnerships with the NAACP and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center; Hendricks also teaches virtual classes to students based in London, England. He founded the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta, a pioneering African American theatre company that helps to empower young artists through socially conscious storytelling. His goal for all students is to help them use theatre as a tool for artistic excellence, leadership and social impact.
Several of Hendricks’ former students have gone on to successful careers on Broadway and in film and television, including two Tony Award nominees, Justin Ellington and Kandi Burruss.
