Student actors say portraying Christ becomes role of a lifetime

Posted: 4/13/07

Student actors say portraying
Christ becomes role of a lifetime

By Jennifer Sicking

University of Mary Hardin-Baylor

BELTON—Three times Jeff Sutton was raised up on a cross, and each time he felt the power of what it represented.

“It is powerful to realize that what I did was imitation, acting, but what Christ did was real,” Sutton, a religion major from Dallas, said about his role as Jesus in the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor’s 68th annual Easter pageant. “Every time I would lay down on the cross, my heart would get in a knot. Christ did it for real. Nails would go through his hands; his blood was shed.”

Each year UMHB President Jerry Bawcom chooses someone to portray Christ, as well as the students to play Mary and to direct the pageant. A committee composed of faculty and staff gives the school’s president two or three students’ names, from which he makes his selection.

“It’s always a tough decision,” he said.

The director, he said, usually is easier, since it is someone who has “come up through the ranks.” In choosing the two main roles, Bawcom looks for students already exhibiting certain characteristics.

“Everyone I remember just has the spirit of Christ or the character of Mary within them,” he said.

For the past year, Sutton studied Scripture and prepared to portray the life of Christ. He said he was shocked when he was chosen, but it also humbled him.

That’s something two others who portrayed Jesus expressed.

Justin Bunting of Edgewood played Christ in 1996, and Elizabeth Underwood McAnelly of Hondo played Christ in 1941, when UMHB was an all-female school.

“I remember saying to the man who told me, ‘That’s the most humbling honor.’ And I still feel that way,” Bunting said.

McAnelly, from class of 1942, agreed the role was humbling, but also challenging.

“There were so many girls that I looked up to who were models to me,” she said of being awarded the role.

She also faced other challenges in taking on the role.

“I dyed my hair, glued on a beard, and they tried to teach me to walk like a man,” she said with a laugh.

Through preparing for the role, Sutton said he felt himself being changed.

“It challenged me to grow in ways I could not imagine,” he said. “My walk with Christ deepened.”

Bunting also felt the role’s impact. “You just try to put yourself in his shoes. It’s hard to believe that he could really do that for you. Reading about it and acting it out make you feel it so much more.”

McAnelly said she agreed with what another woman who portrayed Christ said.

“That is still our daily responsibility (to portray Christ), not in a program, but in our daily living,” she said. “I so often fail him, but I try.”

About 5,000 people attend the pageant each year in the week before Easter to watch about 90 students portray the Passion of Christ. Each year, directors bring different elements into the production, which takes place outdoors in front of the Luther Memorial arches.

“It’s neat to see how it’s grown through the years,” said Bunting, who brought his 5-year-old son to the show for the first time. “Instead of it becoming stale, it’s good to see it flourish and change.”

McAnelly has seen the most change. While the latest production begins with the first years of Jesus’ life and continues through his ascension, in 1941 the play concentrated upon the Passion Week, beginning with Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Costumes and scenery were simple, she said, since they didn’t have money.

“The story is the same; it doesn’t change,” she said. “It’s about God’s unfathomable love.”