Well, we just learned how stories can connect strangers.

Now, we see how shared passion has led to decades of impact.

30 years ago, two best friends followed a calling they couldn't yet see.

Today, their dream packs a Fort Mill stage with music, families, and even a few four-legged friends.

NarroWay Productions now draws thousands while training a new generation of performers.

"Carolina Impact"'s Dara Khaalid and videographer Russ Hunsinger trace one friendship that grew into a community.

(upbeat music) (keyboard clacking) - [Dara] A blank page, (uplifting piano music) a few notes, and two best friends.

For three decades, those simple ingredients have helped Rebecca Martin and Yvonne "Birdie" Clark turn stories of faith into song, movement, and theater, but their stories started long before NarroWay Productions ever had a name.

(Yvonne laughs) - All right.

Take two.

- [Dara] The two grew up just 20 minutes apart, went to rival high schools, and never met.

Their paths finally crossed in college.

Friendship followed, then faith deepened their bond.

- We were best of friends.

Birdie wasn't a Christian.

I was able to help to lead her to the Lord and become a believer.

So, before we were ever, we were first friends and then we were spiritual friends.

(tender piano music) - [Dara] They graduated, headed to seminary, and started creating musicals together.

Rebecca found the words.

Birdie found their song.

That rhythm still drives their partnership today.

- The best thing in the whole wide world.

We are truly like sisters.

We don't agree on everything.

If she doesn't, she will clearly, loudly say it.

Then you'll see where I changed and moved the bridge down here.

- Okay.

- [Dara] That sisterhood eventually planted roots in Fort Mill.

NarroWay incorporated as a nonprofit in 1996, 12 years after Rebecca says she first heard the name NarroWay Productions from God during a drive with Birdie.

(actors indistinctly shouting) Today, their Christian dinner theater pairs chef-prepared meals with Broadway-style productions, sometimes featuring 60 to 100 performers on stage, and the people serving the dinner, well, they hop on stage minutes later.

More than 500 volunteers power the cast.

Attorneys, IT workers, stay-at-home moms, and other community members swap their day jobs for costumes, choreography, and characters.

(group laughs) Sharron Bates drives about an hour from Mooresville to watch them.

The cast already knows her and her favorite spot.

- Every time I come, they know my seat.

They know who I am.

So it's like visiting with family.

Every production that I've been to, they leave it all on the stage.

- [Dara] Some of those performers have hooves.

Meet Solomon.

The camel may steal the camera, but Lora McCoy knows the personality hiding behind that big, loving face.

(brush rustling) She's cared for NarroWay's animals throughout its 30-year history.

- Incredibly fulfilling, absolutely.

It truly is my life.

You're a good boy.

Animal care, a huge part of it, because they just truly are my family.

- That family also includes rescues, two donkeys.

Chester and Sugar found a home here after Sugar once rode a trailer headed to a slaughterhouse.

Now, they've both transformed into gentle stage performers.

The animals help turn biblical settings into something audiences can nearly step inside, but NarroWay's impact doesn't stop when the curtain falls.

So I've shown you the production side of what NarroWay does, but now it's time to take a look at a different part of their impact here in the Fort Mill community, and it's right here at the shops at NarroWay.

(upbeat music) NarroWay purchased the shops in 2018, then started flipping the property into a family-friendly destination.

Today, businesses, a welcome center, a gift shop, and bakery help extend the experience past theater doors.

Alisha Hutchens says that experience also brings visitors and their dollars into the region.

- We have people fly in from California, drive in from Texas to see us.

(triumphant music) - [Dara] NarroWay had more than 43,000 visitors last year.

The organization says 81% came from outside York County, generating at least $1.2 million in local economic impact.

- [Cast] One, two, three, four!

♪ What can you buy for a penny ♪ - [Dara] But perhaps their biggest investment doesn't come with a dollar sign.

It comes with small feet, big voices, and growing confidence.

NarroWay launched its education department with fewer than 20 children per summer camp.

This semester, 311 students fill 15 classes, learning musical theater, dance, show choir, and aerial arts.

- It means everything to me that my theater love and my love for Jesus get to hold hands in this way.

♪ Happy holidays ♪ - [Dara] For Lindsey, that legacy lives particularly close to home.

Her daughter, Cayden, started here as an eight-year-old.

Now, she teaches the next generation.

- Cool is the best way to say it.

It doesn't encapsulate it, but it's just so cool because, like, I know I have always had that passion, and getting to see other kids that have the same passion as me and get to pour into them and build them up.

(uplifting music) - [Dara] 30 years ago, two friends poured their faith, talent, and friendship into an idea.

(children chattering) Today, others pour what they learned into someone else.

One generation teaches, another takes the stage, and the story Rebecca and Birdie started writing together still has plenty of blank pages left.

For "Carolina Impact," I'm Dara Khaalid.