Tonea Stewart to Be Presented With the Living Legend Award

Tonea Stewart, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Alabama State University in Montgomery, will received the Living Legend Award at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on August 1. Dr. Stewart has appeared on stage, screen, and television. She is perhaps best known for her role on the television drama In the Heat of the Night.

Dean Stewart is a native of Greenwood, Mississippi. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Jackson State University and a master’s degree at the University of California at Santa Barbara. In 1989 she was awarded a Ph.D. in theater arts from Florida State University. She was the first African-American woman to receive a doctorate from the School of Theatre at Florida State.