“Brighter Still,” a musical tribute to beloved educator-director Ronald Bright on Saturday at Hawaii Theatre, is further proof that his impact on Honolulu’s performing arts community burns, yes, brighter still.

It’s the first collaboration by his proteges and family without their late mentor, whom they lovingly call “Mr. B.” The event, heading toward a sellout, also officially launches the nonprofit I’m a Bright Kid Foundation, whose mission is to perpetuate and preserve Bright’s legacy.

For son Michael Bright the show is “bittersweet, but excitement overrides,” he said. The production comes about a year after his father’s death July 7, 2015, at age 81.

Ronald Bright was a beacon of musical theater for four decades at Castle High School, where he founded the Castle Performing Arts Company in 1984. A decade later the school’s theater auditorium was named for him. In 1990 Bright was saluted with a Milken Award for educational excellence.

His high-profile shows created homegrown talent, such as Cliffton Hall, Kimee Balmilero and Michael Bright, whose Broadway credits include “Miss Saigon,” “Mamma Mia!” and “Wicked,” respectively, and inspired scores of other local troupers to seek stage careers.

The cavalcade of production numbers planned for “Brighter Still” will reflect the gamut and artistry of his casts, according to Michael Bright, a Kamehameha Schools teacher.

He said the family also wanted to footnote the director’s Hilo roots with tunes he adored well before he mined the Broadway canon.

“The neatest thing is the amalgamation of generations of people — actors from the ’60s and ’70s and the newer generation of the Paliku Theatre era — coming together in the same spirit, working together for the first time but creating that bond, that spirit of love, the spirit of collaboration, that my dad knew,” he said.

“It’s a beautiful tapestry of his legacy.”

Clarke Bright, Michael’s brother, is musical director of the production, a role he played many times for his father’s shows, often in between his daytime job as maestro of the Royal Hawaiian Band.

“There still is a sense of awe, and, very clearly, we didn’t have to pull teeth to get our cast involved. The legacy is entrenched in the rehearsals, the desire for creative excellence, to bring energy to Dad’s legacy, who gave so much to many, and that is powerful,” he said.

During the planning and rehearsal process, Clarke Bright said he often found himself conversing with “Poppa,” the family nickname for the elder Bright. “We have felt his presence — and his blessing.”

Bright’s widow, Mo, called the experience of putting the show together “therapeutic.”

“I’ve been to all rehearsals and he lives through the kids. It’s wonderful to share the memories and have the team aboard. … And all our seven grandchildren will be participating in one way or another,” she said.

Ligaya Stice, a doctor at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children, heads the new foundation, which is aimed at engaging kids in creative endeavors, workshops and training, initially on the Windward side. She and her sisters excelled in Bright productions.

Corporate donations totalling $40,000 already are in the coffer, she said.

John Bryan, traveling here from Japan, will share emcee duties with former newscaster Jodi Leong.

The cast will feature a host of familiar talents over five decades, such as sisters Jade Anguay Bright, Jana Anguay Alcain, Tori Anguay Dela Cruz and Zoey Anguay Camat, and their brother Zare Anguay. Other performers include Kip Wilborn, Johnson Enos, Sonya Mendez, Shawna Masuda, Mahiai Kekumu, Loggia Stice, Kim Anderson, the aforementioned Kimee Balmilero, Buz Tennant and Marcelo Pacleb’s 24-VII Danceforce.

Those coming from afar include Kalani Poomaihealani from Japan, Jordan Shanahan from Switzerland and Jacquelyn Holland-Wright from Las Vegas.

“A little bit of Ron lives in each one of them,” said Mo Bright.

Sarah Gamiao Kekuna appeared in Bright-directed high school productions of “Hello, Dolly,” “Oklahoma!” and “Grease” and is a teacher at Mid-Pacific Institute.

“At an early age I had a calling to teach because Mr. B was one of the greatest teachers. He didn’t just teach; he lived it. He believed in us and made us believe in ourselves. As a teacher now, I have the best of both worlds teaching music to young students.”

Tony Young, a teacher at Punahou School, recalls that in high school he was reluctant to venture into theater but wound up in the ensemble of Bright’s “My Fair Lady” at Castle High School.

“I never knew how to dance. He came right up to me and made me feel so comfortable. I was so nervous to hear my voice. When I think of him now, one word comes up: comforting.

“He saved so many lives. He made you feel valued, he welcomed you into his world. We all want to be accepted and loved; his reach touched us all. And he taught us well.”