Freddie Hendricks Will Receive the 2026 Excellence in Theatre Education Tony Award

Freddie Hendricks, a middle school theater teacher at Utopian Academy for the Arts in Ellenwood, GA, is the 2026 winner of the Excellence in Theatre Education Award (EITEA), presented by the Tony Awards in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University. Hendricks will receive the award at the 79th Annual Tony Awards in New York City on Sunday, June 7.

The EITEA, first awarded in 2014, recognizes a K-12 theater educator in the US 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, tickets to the Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall and the gala that follows at Rockefeller Center, and a visiting master class taught by CMU Drama professors for his students.

Hendricks, the 10th theater arts teacher to receive the award, has been an arts educator for more than 30 years and was an honorable mention for the EITEA in 2023 and 2024.

At Utopian, Hendricks has a goal for all students to help them use theater as a tool for artistic excellence, leadership, and social impact. He founded the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta, a pioneering African American theater company that helps to empower young artists through socially-conscious storytelling.

Several of Hendricks’ former students have gone on to careers on Broadway and in film and television, including two of this year’s Tony Award nominees, Justin Ellington and Kandi Burruss.