The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor’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.

Easter Pageant first began in 1940. UMHB president Gordon Singleton thought the burnt 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 UMHB’s 1983 Bells newspaper  issue. Now, Easter Pageant is one of the most well-loved traditions at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, hosting thousands in their audience.

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.

Bringing the Gospel to Life Through Acting

In the 2025 Easter Pageant, President Randy O’Rear chose Banner Scarborough and Emily Huynh to be the lead roles of 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 the Easter Pageant. “Banner asked me and I knew that it was something the Lord was calling me to say yes to.”

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.”

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 brought to life, in a sense.”

Huynh explained the first time she understood the gospel was as a crowds person. Huynh felt it “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.”

Bobby Johnson, a ’79 UMHB alumnus, 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.”

Easter Pageant’s Directors, Committees and Staff and Faculty Create and Execute the Plan

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.

Doyle said “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.

UMHB hosted  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  portrayed Jesus and Mary. Brynne Loya was chosen to be the director, and Alec Saltzman and Carson Leedy were the assistant directors. You can watch the recording here.

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Cover photo Emily Jenkins

Emily Jenkins is the Editorial Intern at Texas Lifestyle Magazine and a senior at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, studying Public Relations. On top of writing, Jenkins enjoys spending quality time with her fiancé, Tyler, and her family, soaking up the sunshine and staying active on campus and in her church. @emilyjene226 and www.linkedin.com/in/emily-jene-jenkins/