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Because of diabetes, Jonathan Cobrda, an 18-year-old actor and playwright, can't eat junk food like other people his age.

His immune system is also susceptible to disease, and if he cuts himself, it's difficult to stop the bleeding.

As he gets older, there's also a chance he might lose his eyesight or live the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

But with all of these hardships and potential hazards in mind, Cobrda still manages to stay positive.

"Diabetes has motivated me to become healthier than I would have been in just six years since I was first diagnosed," Cobrda says. "It's kind of made me see having diabetes as a good thing.

"People should be living their life every day as if they have diabetes."

It's this combination of the negative and the positive that propels "Sweet 'n Low: The True Story of One Diabetic's Journey to Keep Spirits High & Sugars Low," the humorous but dramatic one-man show Cobrda debuted in May.

The actor staged two separate performances of his play to packed houses, and he'll be doing encore performances for Greensboro audiences this weekend.

Before the packed houses and accolades from audiences, Cobrda began to work on the play but never even intended to perform it. He initially wrote the script as his senior project while attending Weaver Academy for Performing & Visual Arts and Advanced Technology, where he was a theater major.

"I wanted to do something that involved theater, and so I started writing this show when I had the idea that I should do a one-man show about me and diabetes," Cobrda says. "That 11 pages and 45 minutes of show took me the entire school year to create."

With guidance from his mentor and a teacher, Cobrda finished the script. He then performed it close to Mother's Day weekend as a fundraiser for the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation and the American Diabetes Association. After each performance, there was a reception featuring sugar-free candies and low-carb foods for the audience as well as DVDs, brochures and books sharing facts on diabetes.

Cobrda says both shows raised almost $600, a sum that was divided equally between the diabetes organizations. Among those who saw the performances were chairmen for both organizations who were wowed by the play and expressed interest in taking it to the "next level."

"I thought they were just trying to be nice," Cobrda says. "But that wasn't the case because they contacted me about a week or so later, and I went to a board meeting with them."

Both organizations want to take Cobrda's show on a national tour. The Junior Diabetes Research Foundation also plans to send him on their annual JDRF Cruise for a Cure fundraiser where he'll be the live entertainment for the passengers on board the ship.

"They want to pitch an HBO special and get HBO to do a diabetes special, which my show would be a part of," Cobrda says.

Now that Cobrda has graduated from Weaver Academy, the young actor spends much of his time in and around the theater. He's playing the title role in North Carolina Theatre's production of "Bat Boy" in Raleigh while preparing to study theater in college at Western Carolina University.

He says this is a good thing because staying on an active routine helps keep his blood sugar low.

"It's very difficult to keep my sugar regulated when I am doing nothing, but lucky for me, being an actor and a performer, I don't stop," Cobrda says.

"I'm constantly doing something all the time, whether I'm in a show or school or clubs or groups or workshops, so I am always striving and forcing myself to keep busy."

Contact Joe Scott at movieshowjoe@gmail.com