EDITOR’S NOTE: The final, 2024 “Future is Bright” cabaret performances return Jan. 5-13 at the Schoolhouse Theatre. Info at parkerarts.org

Take this in: Eli Testa, a 16-year-old junior at Highlands Ranch High School, started a theater company called “Future Is Bright” during the pandemic shutdown just to create a group performance opportunity for fellow Colorado high-school students — and raise money for The Denver Actors Fund.

Testa’s second annual all-student-created, produced and performed cabaret raised $12,000 in four performances last weekend at the Parker Performing Arts School. That brings to $20,000 the total he and his company have raised for the Denver Actors Fund, which in nine years has paid down Colorado theater artists’ medical bills by more than $1 million.

Testa’s cast consisted of 30 students from 11 area high schools. His crew numbered eight more. Together they created, rehearsed, staged and promoted the show, which was made up of 22 solo and group showtunes — no adults allowed. Their opening number could not have been more appropriately titled: They performed “The Nicest Kids in Town” from “Hairspray.”

Not gonna lie: I love the kid, and not only because I started the nonprofit his cabaret raised all that money for. But what does he get out of it?

“Knowing that not only am I creating positive change within the Colorado theater community, but that it can also change the lives of the cast and crew members involved,” said Testa, son of Mary Kennedy and former longtime Denver actor Dan Testa.

“I hope this experience has had the impact on them that it has had on me because this production with this cast has changed my life in so many ways. It gave me a family.”

Participating in the first two “Future is Bright” cabarets, said Mountain Vista High School student Carter Hogan, “was one of the greatest honors I will ever have in my life.”

Testa, added cast member Cathryn Church of Mountain Vista, is a “truly incredible” person.

“He has done so much for all of us, and for Colorado theater … and for the world.”