(South Florida – August 26, 2025) Gary Schweikhart, board president of the Carbonell Awards, South Florida’s Theater & Arts Honors, today announced the recipient of the fifth of seven prestigious Special Awards that will be presented at the Carbonell Awards Ceremony on Monday, November 17, at 7:30 pm at FAU’s University Theatre in Boca Raton 33431.

“While we will be honoring in 20 competitive categories specific theatre performances, production elements, and shows presented between September 2024 and August 2025, the Carbonell board of directors has unanimously voted to also bestow the following Special Award,” said Schweikhart.

The Bill Hindman Award

Honors significant, long-term contributions to the region’s cultural life and onstage career achievement by performing artists based in South Florida.

Beverly Blanchette

Beverly Blanchette is a nationally recognized theatre artist and educator who has helped shape the cultural fabric of south Florida for over four decades. As a performer, director, and passionate advocate for arts education, she has championed the transformative power of theatre in both professional and academic settings.  During her long career as a theatre educator—most notably as Dean of Theatre at the Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach—she mentored hundreds of young artists, many of whom now work across the globe in the arts and education.

A member of the Educational Theatre Association’s Hall of Fame, she trained and inspired generations of students whose own careers span Broadway, television, film, world stages, and classrooms of their own. Her passionate mentorship and professional excellence ripples across the country and back home where her students guide the next wave of actors, directors, producers, designers, and writers. Her legacy lives in the voices she nurtured, the programs she built, and the community she continues to uplift with artistry, wisdom, and generosity.  She remains active on stage and off, still driven by the same joy and rigor she discovered in a Miami drama classroom.

For Blanchette, the work is never done.  “We call it a play because we’re playing,”—and she’s still playing full-out, having made her New York stage debut this past summer. Her work is a testament to the great chain of teaching and storytelling that defines a truly enduring career in the arts continuing to shape the artistic life of her community and beyond.

Blanchette received multiple nominations for this award. MNM Producer Marcie Gorman praises Blanchette for being “a vital part of South Florida’s theatre community for 40 years. (Just) add up her teaching credits, workshop creations, acting skills, directing credits, and the sheer number of young people she has helped find their life journey.” Actor Janet Weakley calls Blanchette “the rare artist whose reach is measured not only by her work but by the countless others she inspired to find their voice.” Such as former student and SAG/AFTRA actor Sarah Siegel who says, “Thanks to (Beverly’s) wisdom, encouragement, and unforgettable pep talks (often sprinkled with Broadway-level dramatics), I’m now pursuing my career in Hollywood with heartfelt confidence.”

The Bill Hindman Award is named after the Carbonell Award-winning stage and film actor.

Previous Winners of the Bill Hindman Award:

Longtime stage manager Carl Waisanen (2024); James Samuel Randolph, theatre professor at New World School of the Arts (2023); actor and Actors’ Equity Association representative Margot Moreland (2022); actors Barbara Bradshaw (2020) and Harriet Oser (2015); and veteran performer Don McArt (2013).

Already Announced Carbonell Special Awards 2025

+ The George Abbott Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts

William Hayes & Sue Ellen Beryl, Co-founders of Palm Beach Dramaworks

+ The Jan McArt Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Small Theatre

New City Players

+ The Vinnette Carroll Award for Advancing Diversity, Equality and Inclusion in South Florida Theatre

Michel Hausmann, Co-founder of Miami New Drama

+ The Charlie Cinnamon Award for Supporting the Arts in South Florida and the Carbonell Awards

Mary Damiano

+ The Ruth Foreman Award for Contributing to the Development of South Florida Theatre

Alexa Kuve, Founder of Arca Images

Schedule to Announce Additional Carbonell Special Awards

+ The Howard Kleinberg Award – September 2

+ The Bill von Maurer Award – September 9

+ 120 Carbonell Award Finalists in 20 Categories – September 16

All the 2025 Special Award recipients were nominated by members from South Florida’s theatre community with the Carbonell Board of Directors making the final selection. The 120 Carbonell Award Finalists will be based on accumulated scores from the nonprofit organization’s pool of nearly 50 experienced and diverse volunteer judges—with seven judges from various counties assigned to each show. During the 2024-2025 season, Carbonell judges adjudicated over 100 professional productions at more than 30 theatres across Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach Counties.

This season’s Carbonell Awards will be presented at a glittery ceremony on November 17 that is South Florida’s version of Broadway’s Tony Awards®. Hundreds of actors, musicians, performers, writers, directors, back-stage technicians, producers, reviewers, designers, specialty artists, and diehard theater fans are expected to attend the event under the leadership of Executive Producer and Director Andrew Kato, Coordinating Producer Eloisa Ferrer, and Associate Producer and Musical Director Caryl Fantel. Tickets for the ceremony and after party are only $45 and will go on public sale in mid-October.

Sponsors of the 48^th Annual Carbonell Awards ceremony and after party include the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts; Aventura Arts & Cultural Center; BroadwayWorld; Broward Center for the Performing Arts; Broward Cultural Division; Carbonell Sculptures Ltd.; Cultural Council for Palm Beach County; Donald M. Ephraim Sun & Stars International Film Festival presented by MorseLife Health System; FPL; Kravis Center for the Performing Arts; Lesser, Landy, Smith & Siegel, PLLC; Miami-Dade County Auditorium, The Dennis C. Moss Center (formerly The South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center), OutClique Magazine, South Florida Cultural Consortium; South Florida Theatre League, Mark Traverso & Conor Walton; Donald R. Walters, P.A.; and The Wick Theatre & Costume Museum.

About The Carbonell Awards

The Carbonell Awards fosters the artistic growth of professional theater in South Florida by celebrating the excellence and diversity of our theater artists, providing scholarships, and building audience appreciation and civic pride by highlighting achievements of our theater community. More than 20 professional theater companies in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties participate in the awards process every year. The Carbonell Awards also celebrate the accomplishments of local artistic leaders by presenting various Special Awards.

Along with New York’s Drama Desk and Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Awards, the Carbonell Awards are among the nation’s oldest regional arts awards and predate others, including Washington, D.C.’s Helen Hayes Awards. The Carbonell Awards are named after the internationally renowned sculptor Manuel Carbonell, who designed the signature solid bronze and marble award given annually to Carbonell Award winners. Over nearly half a century, the Carbonell family has donated more than $250,000 in awards. For more information, please visit www.carbonellawards.org.

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Attached Image:

Beverly Blanchette

(Photo Credit: Sarah Spiegel)

Media Contact:

Gary Schweikhart, President

The Carbonell Board of Directors

561.756.4298 / [email protected]