By Emily Jenkins
Staff Writer
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, [and] that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.
UMHB’s Easter Pageant brings the gospel of Jesus Christ to life each year. Through this message, lives have been changed, hope has been found and lasting relationships have been formed.
The Beginnings of Easter Pageant
Easter Pageant first began in 1940. UMHB president Gordon Singleton thought the ruins of the Luther Hall, now Luther Memorial, would be the best place for an Easter pageant. Singleton asked Miss Cynthia Sory, the drama teacher, to produce this pageant on $25. The first Easter Pageant began on Easter Sunday at 5:30 p.m. with 50 cast members and a handful of spectators, as said in a 1983 Bells issue.
Interest in the pageant has wavered throughout the years. In 1971, when the college becomes fully coeducational, the Dean of Students announced in a memo that the Easter Pageant was to be canceled because of the lack of interest, but a group of five students, mostly lower classmen, came up with 100 student signatures to petition President Bobby Parker, so the pageant was led by the lower classman and was highly successful, according the UMHB Museum Interview Archives. Now, Easter Pageant is one of the most well-loved traditions at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, hosting thousands in their audience.
Bringing the Gospel to Life Through Acting
Historically, Easter Pageant was performed only by the women students at Mary Hardin-Baylor College. When the college became coeducational, both female and male students portrayed Jesus in the Easter Pageant with the first male Jesus being Bobby Johnson in 1974 and the last recorded female being Lindsay Moore in 1998. In 2002, the Easter Pageant script was changed to be narrated from the perspective of Mary, the mother of Christ, rather than Peter as formerly, according to the UMHB Museum Interview Archives.
Currently, Randy O’Rear, the university president, personally picks the director of the pageant and the actors who portray Jesus and Mary every year. The student who portrays Jesus picks his 12 disciples while the student who portrays Mary picks her 6 mourners. Other students may also audition to be actors like “crowds persons” and other roles.
Being Called to Easter Pageant
In the 2025 Easter Pageant, President Randy O’Rear chose Banner Scarborough and Emily Huynh to be the lead roles Jesus and Mary. Both Scarborough and Huynh said they felt unworthy to be chosen to be Jesus and Mary.
“It really was, like, the first time in my life where I had felt chosen,” Emily Huynh said, “I think that’s a really cool thing that believers in general… should have: that realization of ‘Wow! Why me?’” Huynh even connected this feeling to Mary’s vocation or calling. Mary had a similar amazement in Luke 1:34 saying, “How will this be?” and later in verses 47-48 “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.”
Huynh and Scarborough both chose some of the actors as well. Scarborough explained that he chose people who could support him while he was trying to sacrificially love on others, but he also chose many people from different stages of life, majors, backgrounds and relationships with Jesus.
Alec Saltzman, who played Thomas, said that he never really met Scarborough before he asked him to be a disciple, but he knew he wanted to do Easter Pageant. “Banner asked me and I knew that it was something the Lord was calling me to say yes to,” Saltzman said, “I was definitely shocked. I didn’t really know what to expect, but at the same time, I was also really excited because I know that the disciple was kind of like a big role that could really be fulfilling.”
Additionally, Huynh said on choosing her mourners, “I think my goal in selecting the mourners that year was to display what the body of Christ … not just physically looks like, but also [looks like] in action.”
Many students, however, get involved as actors by signing up. Saltzman explained he first got involved his freshman year as a “crowds person.” He said that his First Year Collective leader told him about it, so he decided to join because it’s a UMHB tradition and his friends also joined. “I was like ‘this seems like a great group of community to… go and share this experience with.’”
The Spiritual Preparation
Although the actors went to weekly meetings, the main part of preparation was spiritual. Scarborough said, “It was way more of an intimate experience in my own walk with Jesus than it was me preparing for a play.”
Saltzman said preparation for him was a lot of building community with the other disciples and getting into the same mindset as the disciples and Jesus were at the time depicted in the pageant. Saltzman explained that they would go over their roles and learned more about “what being a disciple of Jesus actually meant.”
Saltzman explained some of the activities that Scarborough prepared for them included reaching out to strangers and telling them about Easter Pageant. Saltzman said they were trying to get out of their comfort zones to learn how to walk trustingly and live with the Lord fearfully.
Saltzman said that going through the motions is the hardest challenge for people because they do not realize it goes deeper. “It’s not just a screen write, but it’s something that we put on and we take on for ourselves and truly experience what it was like back then.”
The Hope and Influence of Easter Pageant
Easter Pageant is much different than a fine arts experience produced by UMHB. Scarborough explained that the acting is worse, but the emotions are more significant. “You get to walk in a 3D play of the gospel.”
Huynh explained that her freshman year, she did not consider herself a believer and had never been surrounded by people who loved Jesus. “The Lord was really faithful to put people in my life that … linked arms with and led me to places that ultimately helped me know him more.” When she joined Easter Pageant as a crowds person, an extra present during the crucifixion and other scenes of the play, her freshman year, she said it was the first time she got to see the gospel lived out. “The gospel had been brough to life, in a sense.”
Huynh explained the first time she understood the gospel was as a crowds person. it was “uncomfortable and unsettling” yelling at the actor portraying Jesus because he didn’t deserve to die. “We were the ones that should be up there… we were the ones who mocked you and put you up on that cross, and it should have been us.”
Similarly, Saltzman said that being a crowds person yelling at Jesus during his arrest gave him a shock, “We’re still broken and these people who are yelling these things at him, like the Lord literally went on the cross and said, ‘Lord, forgive them for they not know what they do.’ And so, it’s like huge to know that while they’re yelling…, Jesus still loved them.”
#Bobby Johnson as Jesus 1974
Bobby Johnson, a UMHB alumnus who graduated in 1979, described how Easter Pageant helped him understand his identity. He said in the UMHB Interview Archives, “What I learned from the role of Jesus and also watching the other roles was that really, in real life, we are all of those roles. Sometimes I am like Peter, I turn my back on him and sometimes I am Judas, I betray him. While it was an honor to portray Christ, I can identify with all of the roles because I mess up. I am a sinner, and I need Christ.”
Saltzman, who is also a senior cybersecurity major and assistant director for 2026 Easter Pageant, said that the directors’ goal is to have the audience to come out of Easter pageant “feeling the weight of the Lord and feeling the weight and the glory and the mercy and the love of Jesus.” Saltzman explained lives are changed through Easter Pageant whether they are a believer in a “lukewarm faith” or are a non-believer “We want people to walk away knowing Christ and just feeling the weight of how much the Lord loves us.”
Easter Pageant has been the means of changing lives. Nelda Sanders, alumna from Mary Hardin-Baylor College, led her future husband to Christ at Easter Pageant in 1954. Sanders explained in an interview from the UMHB Interview Archives that she started dating a young man in the military from Maryland in January 1954. She had a suspicion that he never committed himself to Christ, although he said he grew up in the Catholic Church, and she was concerned. Sanders decided to take him to the pageant.
“Afterwards we had a discussion about what had happened during that pageant and how Christ had come and lived on earth and died for us. Through that, he had an awakening to understanding that he needed to receive Christ as his Savior.”
During the Korean War, the two married not knowing whether the man would be deployed overseas or not, and 64 years later he went from Sanders’ arms to Christ’s arms. Sanders said, “I placed him in the arms of Jesus.” Sanders explained that the Lord led them, and that Christ had been in their marriage. “And it all began because of the Easter Pageant on Mary Hardin-Baylor campus.”
Easter Pageant’s Directors, Committees and Staff and Faculty Create and Execute the Plan
#Easter Pageant’s Directors with Cast
Although Easter Pageant most notably requires spiritual preparation and spiritual impact, the play also requires ordinary planning and logistics from the directors, committees and UMHB staff and faculty.
“One side of EP [Easter Pageant] is, like the planning, the logistics, and the pageant, and then the other side was, like the discipleship, the shepherding, … [and] the group dynamic.” said Emily Hyunh.
Erin Doyle, Easter Pageant 2025 assistant director, explained that “it takes a village” to make Easter Pageant a reality. Doyle said that as directors they would meet with committees weekly, and at practices they simply walked the actors through the scenes. From the actors’ perspective, Saltzman explained that the disciples did what the directors asked and tried to be intentional while running through the scenes.
Doyle said as an assistant director she felt “the Lord had stripped me of all pride in that role” because she felt the main contributor to the pageant was the community. UMHB’s maintenance department Physical Plant, various Easter Pageant committees, and UMHB’s staff and faculty all came together to produce Easter Pageant.
Doyle explained that the committee heads and the directors would meet weekly to plan. The committees oversaw prayer, costume, makeup, outreach, media, props and kids.
Kerri Pearson, a UMHB alumna who graduated in 2002 and current adjunct professor, was a director of hair and make-up as a student. The Hair and Make-up Committee made the stage blood, but the 2000 Easter Pageant created an unforgettable batch that year. They used peanut butter and red tempura paint to make a “blood texture,” but Pearson did not realize that she bought crunchy peanut butter that year. Pearson said, “We just went with it. When we were spreading it on Jesus’ back it just looked like blood clots.”
Pearson did not have the funds as a college student to buy smooth peanut butter according to the UMHB Museum Interview Archives. The crucifixion scene was more gruesome that year. Beth Norvell, associate director with the UMHB Museum and Alumni Engagement, added that Hair and Make-up was asked to not use crunchy peanut butter again in the stage blood.
In the past, people like Phil Dunham, who started teaching in 1989 and unexpectedly passed away over Christmas break in 2011, helped make props for Easter Pageant through his pottery. However, the remains of his work are all shattered now because Dunham created these vessels to be smashed in the scene where Jesus flips over the money changers’ tables. Dunham said, as found in the UMHB Interview Archives, “I think I could say that my work has to do with a personal story based on investigation as well as imagination.”
The faculty and staff played a role in promoting Easter Pageant and mentoring students, Doyle explained that Easter Pageant’s advisor Mike McCarthy, who has served as advisor to the pageant for over 20 years, coordinated different staff or faculty to lead the 30-minute devotionals at the practices. In addition, the faculty and staff were available if anyone needed to talk, especially the day of Easter Pageant. Doyle added that the outreach committee also was available to talk to people during that time as well.
The staff and faculty also brought UMHB Alumni, who performed or directed in the pageant, to come and give biblical truth to lean on in the more emotional scenes, Doyle explained.
The Performance Must Go On, Rain or Shine
# Dillon Moore as Jesus 2024
Easter Pageant is performed completely outside, but the weather has never caused the pageant to be canceled. Although the pageant has been postponed due to weather, Norvell said Easter Pageant has never been cancelled due to weather. Additionally, Kaylee Freerksen, UMHB’s event services supervisor, said, “We’ve had such great blessings that weather has not impacted it too much…”
Additionally, the rainy weather seems to further the pageant’s message on two occasions. Kay Anderson, an alumna who graduated in 1963, said as recorded in the UMHB Museum Interview Archives, that it never rained on the pageant saying, “One year there were a lot of storm clouds and it was almost as dark as night. The sun broke through the clouds just as Christ appeared before the Disciples after the crucifixion and a shaft of light fell directly on the student portraying the role. It was a very powerful moment.”
In 2024, Dillon Moore, who portrayed Jesus in Easter Pageant, was being crucified. In that moment, the rain stopped and the sun caused Moore to glow recounted Banner Scarborough, who portrayed Jesus in Easter Pageant 2025. However, while Moore was in the tomb, the clouds covered the sun again. When Moore walks out of the tomb glowing, a rainbow appears in the sky as he portrays Jesus’s resurrection. Scarborough said that in that moment, “I really feel that God was showing by illuminating Jesus on the cross was that he’s like… ‘I’m really proud of my son. I love my Jesus. I love my son.”
UMHB Physical Plant Works with Student Life
Physical Plant works side-by-side with McCarthy to schedule prop and scene set-up, explained Kylee Freerksen.
UMHB’s Physical Plant Department, with roughly 60 employees, starts preparing for Easter Pageant in January by creating timelines and making sure they are prepared for practices to start. The construction department works directly with Student Life to organize the timeline, so they know when McCarthy and his team are ready for the scenery, Freerksen explained. This year, Physical Plant staff will started building the set the first week of March.
Physical Plant has many responsibilities divided among the different departments in grounds and landscaping, event services, construction, maintenance, electrical, and even plumbing and mechanical.
Maintenance and construction are the departments that build the tomb and the upper room. “Those are kind of those main focuses since they take longer to build,” Freerksen said.
The grounds and landscape department oversee relocating bleachers, Freerksen said, “We kind of joke that it’s the Easter Pageant parade because we have multiple tractors and then multiple vehicles following the bleachers and, you know, they have their hazards on. And so, as they come through, everyone kind of turns to watch the bleachers go by.”
On the day of the Easter Pageant, Physical Plant’s event services have the responsibility of providing tables and chairs for the Easter Pageant events that alumni and students have.
All the preparation peaks when UMHB hosts Easter Pageant the week of Good Friday. The day after Easter Pageant, physical plant staff starts tear down beginning with the chairs, rope boundary, and then bleachers. Then they store the Easter Pageant props in the warehouse, Freerksen explained.
Physical Plant staff members have been faithful to provide construction and set-up service for Easter Pageant for years. “Going back years,…people who are no longer with UMHB … have impacted us to where we still use their materials because they built them so well,” Freerksen said.
One of the oldest items still in use at the Easter Pageant is the well. Freerksen explained that the well was discovered in the current Connor Golf Performance property when the property was first purchased in the early 2000s. However, Easter Pageant also updates props like the walls which were upgraded in 2025 to look better and increase efficiency.
2026 Easter Pageant
UMHB will host its 87th Annual Easter Pageant for the public on Wednesday, April 1 at 12:30 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. This year Jonathan Diaz and Kinsley Jones will be portraying Jesus and Mary. Brynne Loya was chosen to be the director, and Alec Saltzman and Carson Leedy are the assistant directors. For more information, email easterpageant@umhb.edu
