Easter Plays for Church

Start here: pick by what you have

• One Easter program for the whole church, children included: Three Roads or Between the Cross and the Empty Tomb.
• A Good Friday service with almost no rehearsal: Seven Voices at the Cross, Three Robbers or The Veil.
• Three actors and a quiet ten minutes on Good Friday: Clean Hands, Before Sundown or A Hundred Pound Weight.
• Nobody in your church will memorize anything: Four Witnesses, What the Water Saw or Three Robbers.
• A series for five Sundays in Lent: Lord, Is It I?

Compare them by day, cast and rehearsal

Play	Best day	Format	Cast	Minutes	To memorize	Rehearsals
Three Roads $16 Mark 11; Luke 23–24	Easter Sunday; covers Palm Sunday to Easter	Program with 4 hymns	12–20, all ages	25	Cleopas, his companion and the Stranger learn theirs; the narrator reads; six children say 1–2 lines	2
Between the Cross and the Empty Tomb $16 Matthew 27–28; Luke 23–24	Easter Sunday or Holy Saturday evening	Program with 4 hymns	12–14, all ages	25	Narrator reads; the longest part is 215 words	3
Seven Voices at the Cross $16 John 19; Mark 15	Good Friday	Program, read from script	4–8 adults and older teens; Mary and one more are women	20–22	Nothing	1
Four Witnesses $8 All four Gospels	Easter Sunday or a Holy Week evening	Readers’ theater	6 teens or adults; anyone reads any part	9–10	Nothing	1
What the Water Saw $8 John 19:34; John 13	Maundy Thursday or Good Friday	Readers’ theater	7, all ages (one part for 9–12, one adult)	10	Nothing	1
Lord, Is It I? $8 Matthew 16; 20; 26	Five Sundays in Lent, or Maundy Thursday	Readers’ theater in 5 parts	7 teens and adults; anyone reads any part	10	Nothing	1 read-through
Three Robbers $8 Mark 15; 1 Peter 3:18	Good Friday	Readers’ theater	6 adults or older teens; Barabbas a man, the rest anyone	7	Nothing	1
The Veil $8 Matthew 27:51; Hebrews 10	Good Friday	Readers’ theater	6 adults or older teens; the priests usually men	6–7	Nothing	1
Two Fires $8 Luke 22; John 21	The Sunday after Easter, or a Holy Week evening	Readers’ theater	6 adults or older teens, mostly men	7	Peter: 31 words of Scripture	1
Clean Hands $8 Matthew 27; Isaiah 53	Good Friday	Drama	3 adults: Pilate, his wife and a servant	5–6	Memorized	2
Before Sundown $8 Luke 23:46–56	Good Friday	Drama with a hymn	3 women	5–6	Memorized	1
A Hundred Pound Weight $8 John 19:38–42	Good Friday	Drama	3 men	7–8	Memorized	2
Remember Me $8 Luke 23:39–43	Good Friday	Drama with an unseen voice	2 men, a soldier of either sex, and a man’s voice	3–4	Memorized	2
The Heel and the Head $8 Genesis 3:15; John 18	Good Friday or Maundy Thursday	Drama	2 men and an officer of either sex	5–6	Memorized	2

Shorter scripts for a Sunday service are in Easter Skits for Church, and scripts for a cast of children in Easter Skits for Kids. Get an email when new Easter plays are out:

Plays that begin on Palm Sunday

Both of our Easter Sunday programs begin with palms. In Three Roads the children pour down the center aisle with their branches, Cleopas at their head, leaving an empty space in the crowd where Jesus rides; later the same aisle becomes the road to the cross and, last, the road to Emmaus. Between the Cross and the Empty Tomb opens with children carrying palms down the aisle during “All Glory, Laud and Honor,” then waits out the Saturday after the cross. Both run 25 minutes and end on Easter Sunday, so most churches give them the Easter Sunday slot and let the palms remind everyone where the week began. For a five-minute Palm Sunday scene inside the service, see the Palm Sunday skits in Easter Skits for Church, or Easter Skits for Kids for a procession of children.

Maundy Thursday plays

A Maundy Thursday service is small, quiet and close to the table. What the Water Saw fits it best: five waters that touched Jesus, from the Jordan to the basin in the upper room, are poured one by one into a glass bowl. Lord, Is It I? can be read in full, all five parts, on Thursday night, each part ending at the same table with the same question. The Heel and the Head is set on the night of the arrest and works on either evening.

Good Friday plays

Eight of our plays are written for Good Friday, and none of them has a joke in it. Pick by how many people you have and whether they can memorize:

• A whole service: Seven Voices at the Cross, a narrator and up to seven people who stood near the cross, read from script: 20 to 22 minutes with all seven voices, about 12 with three.
• Readers’ theater, six readers: Three Robbers counts the robbers of that day and ends on 1 Peter 3:18; in The Veil the temple curtain tears in front of a priest on duty.
• Three actors who will learn their lines: Clean Hands (Pilate, his wife and a servant, the next morning), Before Sundown (three women and the spices, for a cast of women) and A Hundred Pound Weight (Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus at the tomb, for a cast of men).
• On the night of the arrest: The Heel and the Head, three adults, with Jesus on stage, played by an adult man who speaks only Scripture. It fits Maundy Thursday too.
• The shortest: Remember Me, three to four minutes on the two thieves, with the voice of Jesus heard once and never seen. It leads straight into the reading of Luke 23:44–49.

Here is a Good Friday service of about 35 to 40 minutes built from two of them:

1. Prelude and a call to worshipTwo minutes. Keep the lights low from the start.
2. Seven Voices at the Cross, with its two hymnsAbout 20 minutes. The narrator reads John 19 and Mark 15, and seven people who stood near the cross speak between the readings.
3. Silence, then a short prayerOne full minute. Nobody moves.
4. The VeilSix to seven minutes. Two readers tear an old bedsheet from the top at the ninth hour, and the room hears it.
5. A closing hymn, and the congregation leaves in silence“Were You There” or “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” No postlude.

Resurrection plays for Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday has the biggest crowd of the year and the most guests, so the play has to carry the whole story, the cross as well as the empty tomb, in words a visitor can follow.

• Three Roads walks the congregation from Palm Sunday to the road to Emmaus in one aisle, with four hymns and children from age four. The whole congregation has one line, from Luke 24:34.
• Between the Cross and the Empty Tomb waits out the Saturday with five groups of people, from the guards at the tomb to a widow from the temple, until the first day of the week arrives.
• Four Witnesses is ten minutes for six readers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John tell the last week together, and the first half is funny.
• Two Fires fits the Sunday after Easter: Peter’s denial by one fire and his restoring by another, with the congregation answering three times.

Easter readers’ theater: nobody memorizes

In readers’ theater the cast reads from scripts on music stands, and the words do the work that sets and costumes do in a play. It is the easiest way to put on an Easter play in a church without a drama team: one rehearsal, almost no lines to learn, and a reader who is sick on Sunday morning can be replaced by anyone who reads well. Six of our Easter plays are written this way: Four Witnesses, What the Water Saw, Lord, Is It I?, Three Robbers, The Veil and Two Fires. In Two Fires only Peter learns his lines, 31 words of Scripture. Seven Voices at the Cross is read from script too.

An Easter series for Lent

Lord, Is It I? is written to be read one part a week through Lent: Peter rebuked after his great confession, James and John asking for the best seats, the disciples grumbling over the alabaster box, Judas and the thirty pieces of silver, and the table where each of them asked, “Lord, is it I?” Each part runs one and a half to three minutes, and you only need the readers in that week’s part. Read all five together on Maundy Thursday and the church hears the whole road at once.

Easter plays for a small church

• More women than men? Most churches are. Before Sundown is written for three women, and in readers’ theater anyone can read any part.
• No stage? Use the aisle. Three Roads is played up and down the center aisle, and readers’ theater needs only music stands across the front.
• Few microphones? In a room of about 150 people or fewer, readers who face out need none. In a bigger room, the readers’ theater scripts share one stand mic between two music stands.
• Mixed ages? Put a grandparent, a teen and a child in the same play. What the Water Saw has a part for a reader of nine to twelve, and our two Easter Sunday programs have room for every child who comes.

Easter plays for teens and youth groups

Teens can read every readers’ theater on this page, with an adult for the parts that need one, such as the voice of Jesus. In the Good Friday dramas an older teen can usually take one part, and all three parts in Before Sundown. A youth group that wants the whole evening can do Four Witnesses, which starts funny, or Lord, Is It I? as a five-week series. For shorter youth skits, see the youth section of Easter Skits for Church.

How much rehearsal an Easter play needs

Readers’ theater needs one rehearsal in the room. The short dramas need one or two, with lines learned before the first. A full program with children and hymns needs about six weeks of planning and two or three rehearsals. Easter 2027 is Sunday, March 28, so the countdown starts in mid-February:

1. Six weeks out, about February 14: choose the play and the hymnsAgree on the script with your pastor and your pianist or worship leader. The programs mark where every hymn goes, so the music can be planned at the same time.
2. Five weeks out, about February 21: cast itGive the narrator’s part to your best reader, not your best actor. In the programs the narrator carries the story, and it’s the one part you can’t replace on the day.
3. Four weeks out, about February 28: read it through togetherOne evening around a table. Time it, and send everyone home with their lines highlighted.
4. Two weeks out, about March 14: walk it in the sanctuaryAisle entrances, where the music stands go, who shares which microphone. For readers’ theater this is the only rehearsal you need.
5. Holy Week, March 21–27: one full run with the musiciansEverything in order, hymns included, with the lights and the sound you will really use.

A free Easter skit to try first

Field Notes on Easter is free: two researchers from the year 2526 arrive at your Easter service to prove it was a spring candy festival, and the congregation’s “He is risen indeed” proves them wrong. Eight minutes, for the start of an Easter Sunday service. For more short scripts, see Easter Skits for Church.

Performance rights in plain words

One purchase covers your whole church: perform the play as often as you like, every Easter, print copies for the whole cast, change names and cut lines for time, take an offering and include it in your livestream. No fee per performance. Please don’t resell the script or post the file publicly. Read the full license.

Questions about Easter plays

How long should an Easter play for church be?

Inside a Sunday service, five to ten minutes. As the whole service or an evening program, twenty to twenty-five minutes of play plus hymns and prayer, which comes to about forty-five minutes. Longer than that and the youngest families start to leave.

What is a good Easter play for a small church?

A readers’ theater, because it needs no set and no memorizing. Four Witnesses takes six readers and ten minutes, and Seven Voices at the Cross can be done with a narrator and three voices. For three actors, Clean Hands or Before Sundown.

Does anyone have to play Jesus?

Rarely. In most of our plays He is never shown: His words are read by an adult reader or heard from an unseen voice. Two scripts put Him on stage, both played by an adult man who speaks only Scripture: the Stranger on the road to Emmaus in Three Roads, and Jesus on the night of His arrest in The Heel and the Head. No child ever plays Him.

Do we pay royalties or a fee per performance?

No. You pay once, $8 or $16, and your church can perform the play as often as it likes, in services, programs and outreach events, with an offering or with admission. There is nothing to report and no one to ask first.

Can women read the men’s parts?

In most of our readers’ theater, yes. Four Witnesses, What the Water Saw and Lord, Is It I? say anyone can read any part, and The Veil leaves the priests to your church. A few parts are fixed by the story: Barabbas in Three Robbers, Peter and the men at the fire in Two Fires, the soldiers and the centurion in Seven Voices at the Cross, and Pilate, Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus in the dramas. The voice of Jesus is always an adult man. If your cast is mostly women, start with Before Sundown or a readers’ theater.

Are there funny Easter plays?

For Easter Sunday, yes: Four Witnesses opens with the Gospel writers arguing over who goes first, and the first road in Three Roads has laughs. Our Good Friday plays have no jokes at all. For more light pieces, see Easter Skits for Church.

Is there a free Easter play script?

Our free Easter script is Field Notes on Easter, an eight-minute skit for the start of an Easter Sunday service with the congregation joining in. Read the whole script on its page, or leave your email for the printable PDF.

How do we get the script?

You pay by card on a secure checkout page and download the PDF right away. One purchase covers your church: print a copy for everyone in the cast, perform it every year and include it in your livestream. See performance rights.