PITTSBORO — Amari Bullett has a Troy Bolton complex: she’s a star on the Northwood women’s basketball team, but off the court she wows the crowd with her acting range and theatrical performances at Pittsboro Youth Theater.
And just like Bolton, the “High School Musical” protagonist, Amari embraces both sides of herself because they build on one another.
“Theater has helped me apply this art to all different parts of my life,” she said. The confidence she gains playing Marcy Park in “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” translates to leadership looking to get the best out of her teammates on the floor.
The shy 8-year-old who started at PYT all those years ago is now 15 and brimming with moxie and maturity. The girl who once told her directors she didn’t know how to be “mean” is now starring as Captain Hook in the ensemble’s competitive theater team.
Stories like Amari’s are everywhere at PYT. The youth theater is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, which is a testament to the founders’ commitment to bringing the best out of all who walk through their doors.
Craig Witter and Tammy Matthews, co-founders of PYT, make the humble stage in downtown Pittsboro a place of family. Over the years they’ve seen the company evolve and grow, but the community they’ve created along the way has followed them.
The beginnings of PYT weren’t actually youth theater at all, they were Shakespeare plays. Witter doesn’t come from a theater background, but his then-girlfriend-now-wife Matthews wanted to start a local Shakespeare in the Park ensemble, where they would do public performances.
“ 12 years ago I said, ‘Yeah, right, that’ll never work,’” Witter said. “And I was right about the Shakespeare thing, but luckily Tammy and I worked out.”
The couple first opened PYT out of the Pittsboro Community House, where they ran the operation for five years before moving into their own space around the corner in the Pittsboro Center for the Arts. Now, after five years the theater is set to move again.
At the end of this year PYT will be moving into a new, bigger space in Bynum. It’ll be a home that is authentically theirs, Witter said. Unlike previous spaces, they’re designing everything essentially from scratch to make it the optimal place for youth theater rehearsals, music lessons, dancing, and of course, charming performances.
“There’s just no way we can stay here,” Witter said. “Business as usual won’t cut it.”
PYT is expanding faster than the corner space in downtown can keep up with, so the bigger space was a necessary move. When Witter and Matthews first began the endeavor they never thought it would expand to where it is today. What used to be one musical a year is now an average of seven shows annually, a music school, and most recently, a competitive troupe preparing for the Junior Theater Festival (JTF).
What started with five families is now bigger than ever with more than 120 families consistently participating in the shows. They’ve even hired others to help out with the operation including choreographers and a music director.
Those families often don’t just do one show with PYT either; they come back and stay because they see such value in the performances and the confidence their kids gain. One of those parents is Amari’s mom, Kala Bullett; she now sends both her children to PYT.
“I have been really grateful to be part of the PYT family basically since it started,” Bullett said. “When Amari was in 1st grade her teacher nudged her toward the stage because she always enjoyed grabbing people’s attention so PYT seemed like a way to redirect that energy.”
Seven years later, Bullett says both her kids have benefited tremendously from their involvement in PYT. Her eyes light up as she talks about all the ways she’s seen Amari’s confidence and sense of identity blossom over the years.
In large part, it’s because of the ways her daughter has been forced to push personal boundaries on the stage. The proud mother believes her kids have learned so much about themselves and the people they should strive to be as a result of involvement in PYT.
“If it had not been for PYT, Amari never would’ve found her way in both theater and music.” Bullett said.
Amari now sings and plays piano and guitar, which she learned outside of PYT, but both she and her mother say she wouldn’t have found it without Matthews and others within the theater showing her the power of music.
Last summer Amari was also accepted into the PlayMakers Repertory Company’s Summer Youth Conservatory, a six-week practicum for high school students. All of these accomplishments happened because of the space Witter, Matthews and others in PYT gave her to express herself.
Families like the Bulletts have developed a deep loyalty to the theater family, which is why Witter said he is confident that almost all families will join them when they move to Bynum next year.
“This is her family,” Kala Bullett said. “When I bring her here she lights up. From a diversity perspective there aren’t a lot of people that look like her in the school, but the thing about the theater is that it’s a space to be accepted regardless of her identity.”
The loyalty, commitment and growth of PYT members is especially remarkable, considering the drastic impacts COVID-19 had on the arts. Many theaters shut their doors, rolled back productions or closed down for good because of financial issues.
But PYT navigated the pandemic with creative solutions. They performed six virtual shows over two years and held outdoor performances at venues across Orange and Chatham County, such as the Forest Theater and Southern Village in Chapel Hill.
“Kids come here and find a home,” Matthews said. “It’s so wonderful to watch them grow and learn. To see a kid go from reciting lines to understanding them and feeling them is hugely fulfilling.”
That fulfillment has spread throughout the Chatham community and it’s how Matthews and Witter got folks on board as the theater prepares to move to Bynum.
Witter said there have been a myriad of challenges in attempting to get everything ready to move on such a rapid timeline, especially as architects, engineers and developers in Chatham are swamped with all the construction in the pipeline for the county. But PYT has utilized their relationships with the community to make it happen.
The lease on the Pittsboro Center for the Arts ends in December, with plans to open the new place in Bynum, the North Chatham Performing Arts Center (NCPAC) in January and have the first show on stage by April 2023. For more information about upcoming shows visit www.pittsboroyouththeater.com.
Reporter Ben Rappaport can be reached at brappaport@chathamnr.com or on Twitter @b_rappaport.