Chicago Academy for the Arts, Providence Catholic students heading to Broadway for Jimmy Awards

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Illinois High School Musical Theatre Awards were just presented, and two local teens are heading to Broadway.

The students talked to ABC7 Chicago's Hosea Sanders just after they won. Now, they're getting set for a life-changing adventure in New York at the Jimmy Awards.

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Broadway In Chicago presents this showcase every spring.

Twenty four young thespians took center stage Monday night.

The winners were Jamaur Houston, who attends The Chicago Academy for the Arts and lives in Humboldt Park, and Sophia Leverett of Frankfurt, who'll graduate from Providence Catholic High School.

"I'm still in shock; I'm still in awe. I was like, 'thank you, Jesus.' That's all I could say," Leverett said.

"I just started crying and jumping up and down and thanking God," Houston said.

Two Black students will represent the state of Illinois.

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"I've never felt more represented. And being able to represent our community, it's so empowering and amazing," Houston said.

"It's an unbelievable feeling; it's just so much pride, and seeing my grandson up there. That's my grandson," grandmother Julie Phillips said.

"To see the people who are coming around to hug him and embrace him and telling him how great he's doing, I was telling my wife, we've got a regular superstar on our hands," grandfather Julius Phillips said.

"I am just ecstatic, looking at all the work she's put in for the last four years," Sophia's mother Ophelia Leverett said.

Sophia Leverett has always been practicing for the spotlight.

"From day one, this is our problem. They're twins. And when they came out of the hospital, we went straight to the music," father Walter Leverett said. "We walked to the movie theaters with two car seats, set those two car seats down in the movie theater."

"You're given an opportunity to do what you love once in a lifetime, and you grab it. And by God, me and Jamaur have grabbed it. It's just fuel for what is to come, and I'm so grateful," Sophia Leverett said.

The Jimmy Awards are next month in New York, where they'll get a real taste of Broadway, and what it takes to be a show-stopper.

Sanders will be following up with those talented teens, as they prepare for their trip to Broadway.