Freddie Hendricks, a middle-school theater teacher, estimates that across his more than 30 years in education, he has had at least a dozen former students make it to the bright lights of Broadway.
They include the “Saturday Night Live” cast member Kenan Thompson, the Tony-nominated actress Saycon Sengbloh and the Tony-nominated producer Kandi Burruss, a producer of last year’s revival of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.” Another former student, Justin Ellington, is nominated this year for the Tony for best sound design of a play, for his work on “Joe Turner.”
As it happens, Hendricks himself is now a Tony winner: He has been awarded the Tony for excellence in theater education.
In a phone interview, Hendriks, 71, called the award “one of the best things that has ever happened to me,” even as he kept the focus on his charges.
“I’m not only glad for me, I’m really glad for the youth, my kids,” he said. Those children “get to see somebody get a prestigious award, to show them that it can be done.”
Hendricks teaches at Utopian Academy for the Arts, a charter school in the suburbs of Atlanta, as well as virtually to students in London. In 1990, he founded the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta, a Black theater company that aims to inspire young artists by using theater to confront social issues.
The award, which is given by the American Theater Wing, the Broadway League and Carnegie Mellon University, includes $10,000 for the winner’s school.
“I’m going create something brand-new,” Hendricks said of his plans for the prize money. “It’s going to have something to do with bullying — with rap music, kids singing, dancing, monologues, scenes, all of that.”
In other words, his students have won, too.
“Everybody says, ‘Freddie, you’re too humble,’” he said. “It’s not about humility. It’s my calling.”
