NEW YORK (AP) — At this year’s Tony Awards, sound designer Justin Ellington and performer-producer Kandi Burruss have gotten nominations to theater’s biggest prize. A man who helped both get there is also being highlighted. Freddie Hendricks, a middle school theater teacher at Utopian Academy for the Arts in Ellenwood, Georgia, and who founded the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta, is getting the special Tony Award that honors 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 the announcement on Monday. “It’s just a beautiful thing.” Hendricks has been 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 one, Kenan Thompson, who is a household star on “Saturday Night Live.” “I’ve always had a passion for theater.…