When Annaleigh Swanson portrayed naughty little Tina Denmark in Theatre Group’s “Ruthless the Musical,” the sensational 10-year-old was dubbed the next “Can’t Miss Kid.” Turns out, she couldn’t. Swanson, newly 21, is now performing under the name of Annaleigh Ashford in the national touring production of “Wicked.”

Courtney Lorenz didn’t see Swanson in “Ruthless.” After all, she was just 2 in 1995. Nonetheless, when Lorenz played the same role at age 12 for Fort Collins’ Nonesuch Theatre last year, she was dubbed the next Annaleigh Swanson.

Melissa Benoist performed with Swanson in a 2000 production of “The Sound of Music” at Country Dinner Playhouse. Benoist, now 17, played little Brigitta, younger sister to Swanson’s Liesl.

And what do you know? After recently starring as Kim MacAfee in the Littleton Town Hall Arts Center’s “Bye Bye Birdie,” Benoist and Lorenz are both looking like Can’t Miss Kids.

The Colorado theater community is loaded with young actors who are demonstrating real potential to one day perform professionally – if they choose. These are not just precocious kids who get cast because they look like they’ve been dipped in sugar. These are burgeoning artists who evidently have been touched, though their raw talent is for now largely untouched.

To name a few more: Noah Wilson, who is about to take on a starring role in the Arvada Center’s “Over the Tavern” at age 13. Max Posner, who has been acting on stages all over Denver for seven years – and is already a published playwright. And how about 16-year-old Akil LuQman, who was plucked from a Denver audition to perform as Young Simba in Disney’s “The Lion King” national tour in 2002?

LuQman would like to become the first kid to play both the young and adult Simba. He has to wait 13 months before he turns 18 to audition again. And that doesn’t even tap into the pool of talented teens who haven’t yet been seen on legit stages because they are excelling on their own school stages.

Any number of these kids might follow in Swanson’s footsteps to the New York footlights. Benoist certainly would like to be one of them.

“I’d been honored to be thought of as the next Annaleigh Swanson,” said Benoist, a senior at Littleton’s Arapahoe High School. “She has been my mentor since I can remember. I keep track of what she’s doing, and I definitely want to follow in her footsteps.”

Swanson cannot quite believe anyone even remembers her early stage work. “I am so deeply flattered,” she said. “It makes my heart really happy that people feel that way, especially people like Melissa. I remember that she was an amazing little Brigitta. Of all the kids, Brigitta has the strongest personality, and Melissa was there, even at 11. She made really good, bold choices. She has a great voice, she took direction well and she listened.

“Her parents are also two wonderful people, and I think that makes a huge difference in the type of theater kid you become. Your parents can really shield you from bad things, and Melissa was always in a really good place. She was very professional, but she was still a kid.”

Swanson said the worst thing for any actor at any age is to pursue it for the wrong reasons.

“If you are doing it for fame or money, or if you are doing it to feed your ego, or to fix something emotionally inside you, that is when things get lost,” Swanson said. “Whereas, if you are doing it for the true love of performing for an audience, and for giving them a gift every time out, it’s something completely different.”

On Swanson’s first day at Marymount Manhattan College (where she graduated in May), a teacher told her class if anyone had any doubts about becoming an actor, they should walk out of the room and not come back. “I remember thinking to myself, ‘What else would I ever do?”‘ Swanson said.

But some may consider her advice for the next generation of Can’t Miss Kids surprising: Live your life, she said. All of it.

“I think no matter what you are going to pursue, if you pursue it like it’s the most important thing, then everything else will be lost,” she said. “And at the end of the day, when it’s time to evaluate the path that you chose for your life, there has to be something more. Because some of this industry can be very empty … It’s very easy to get lost. You can lose the artistry.

“I think part of becoming a wonderful actor and part of defining your craft is defining yourself and being confident in yourself so when the hard knocks come, and you don’t get a job for five years, and your ego is being kicked around, you can pull yourself out of it. The people I see be the most successful are the people who have an inner confidence and an inner strength that comes from the character they display away from the stage, and from what their parents taught them. I, for one, have a great momma.”

Swanson is an innately gifted singer and dancer. But when she is neither singing nor dancing, she is a voracious reader, and a serious student of acting.

“You can be a singer and a dancer, but there is a time when all of that ends,” she said. “But acting is something you can do till the day you die.”

Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.

Melissa Benoist, 17

“I believe in making my opportunities and that I am responsible for my own future. I am going to be really careful about it and take it one step at a time, and hopefully it will turn out for the best. But I love it so much I don’t think I would give it up for anything else.”

school: Senior at Arapahoe High, Littleton

parents: Jim and Julie Benoist

how you know her: As Kim MacAfee in Town Hall Arts Center’s “Bye Bye Birdie”

next: Cinderella in Town Hall’s “Cinderella,” opening Nov. 10

future plans: “I have known for a long time that acting is what I want to do, so I haven’t really tried anything else. It’s pretty much all I’m really good at that I have discovered yet. It’s so scary to think that, wow, I could go straight into being a starving actor less than a year from now. But I feel an obligation to go to college and get a degree. I just do.”

says Academy of Theatre Arts co-founder Paul Dwyer: “When I started teaching Melissa nine years ago, her biggest concern was pleasing the audience and the director. She didn’t want to let anyone down. That’s when I knew she was destined to be in the theater and that she would be a great actress.”

Courtney Lorenz, 13

“Acting is really important to me and I take it seriously. Right now I am taking voice and improv classes so that I can continue to get better.”

school: 8th grader at Blevins Junior High, Fort Collins

parents: Barb and Tom Lorenz

how you know her: As Tina Denmark in Nonesuch’s “Ruthless the Musical”

next up: Little Sally in Nonesuch’s

“Urinetown,” opening Feb. 2, 2007

future plans: “I really haven’t thought about my future all that much. I’ve actually thought about being a nurse maybe. That might be kind of cool. But I really think I want to keep doing this. It’s really, really fun. I love it. I’ve always thought it would be really fun to play Dorothy in ‘The Wizard of Oz.”‘

says Nonesuch artistic director Nick Turner: “My initial impression of Courtney was charm, a sense of humor and even worldliness – and she was only 9. She has that natural, innate acting craft just built in to her. She already approaches it as if it is her profession. That’s the quality that is going to make her a successful professional actress.”

Akil Luqman ii, 16

“I am starting to discover that art is not just doing. In every art you have to feel, and I feel this is where I want to be.”

school: Junior at Denver School of the Arts

parents: Mariko and Akil LuQman

how you know him: As Young Simba in the national touring production of “The Lion King,” which launched in Denver in 2002

next up: Performing with the Indian dance studio Mudra in January, and touring with “Words Can Heal,” a program that promotes nonbullying in schools.

future plans: “I am ready for almost anything, but I really want to stay rooted in the live theater so I can continue to interact with audiences. I can’t wait until I turn 18 so I can go back and audition to play adult Simba in ‘The Lion King.’ ”

says Denver School of the Arts teacher Shawn Hann: “Akil’s smile, enthusiasm and energy brighten my day, every day. He has an energy about him that is electric and when he hits the stage, watch out. He loves entertaining people.”

Max Posner, 17

“I have gone on quite a journey from acting in musical comedies to playing a Columbine copycat killer. But somewhere along the line, I realized I had a yearning to create theater as much as to do it. I hope to strike a balance in my writing between theatrical traditions and experimentation. The people who have influenced me most are extremely generous, honest and smart – and that’s the kind of artist I aspire to be.”

school: Senior at Denver School of the Arts

parents: David and Helen Posner

how you know him: As an actor in the LIDA Project’s “Bingo Boyz Columbine.” He’s also already a published playwright. Playscripts Inc. published his “Counting to Infinity,” which was performed at the International Thespian Festival in Lincoln, Neb. His summer with New York Stage and Film just resulted in “The War on Safety.” He’s a two-time selection for the Curious New Voices playwriting program, and his “Noble Causes” was included in Curious’ “New Voices from the Battlefield,” a young writers’ companion to “The War Anthology.”

next: A 10-minute play for Curious New Voices on the topic of race.

future plans: “College somewhere on the East Coast where I can play around with both acting and writing. But the hope is that I will be a future playwright.”

says Denver School of the Arts teacher Moss Kaplan: “What impresses and awes me most about Max is how fearlessly he attacks the work of playwriting. He understands the commitment and tenacity required to shape a script draft after draft. He also listens incredibly well – absorbing ideas and criticism – then synthesizing this feedback into something altogether unique and creative.”

Noah Wilson, 13

“I have other interests and hobbies, but theater is my favorite thing to do. I definitely want to become an actor when I grow up.”

school: 8th grader at Denver School of the Arts

parents: Jill and Jerry Wilson

how you know him: As Nathan Lukowski in the Arvada Center’s “The Full Monty”

next: Rudy, the lead role in the Arvada Center’s “Over the Tavern” opening

Oct. 17

future plans: “I know whatever it is that I do when I grow up, it will involve theater in some way. I have known that since I played Artie when I was 10 in ‘Annie’ at the Mizel Center. I just got hooked on the thrill of being on stage.”

says Arvada Center artistic director Rod Lansberry: “Noah definitely has the desire to succeed in this business, and he already has developed a great work ethic. His biggest challenge will come with ‘Over the Tavern,’ when he has to step up in one of the play’s pivotal roles – and for eight shows per week. I feel confident it is within his abilities to meet this challenge and to come out the other side having learned a great deal about the business and himself. That’s a lot for a kid his age.”