Church Skits & Plays
A Maundy Thursday monologueNothing Rises This Week1 actor · 5 min

Easter · 1 actor · 5 minutes · One adult woman, a good part for an older one

Nothing Rises This Week

Late on the night of the Passover supper, the lady of the house with the upper room kneads flat bread downstairs and tells what she saw through the door: her guest, the Master, washing His disciples’ feet with her towel. A warm, funny Maundy Thursday monologue for one woman.

$8USD, tax included
  • Instant PDF download, yours to keep
  • Performance rights for your whole church
  • 30-day refund if it doesn’t fit your church
Running time5 minutes
Cast1 role · One adult woman, a good part for an older one
PrepMemorized, with two rehearsals, at least one with real dough. Or she reads from six large-type cards laid flat along the back of the table like recipe cards.
Best forMaundy Thursday service, Holy Week program, a women’s breakfast or tea during Holy Week
ScriptureExodus 12:15; Mark 14:12–17, 26; Luke 22:24; John 13:4–15, 30 (KJV)
ThemeOn the night before He died, Jesus, the Master and Lord, took a towel and did a servant’s work for His disciples, in the house where He was a guest.
FormatPrintable PDF

About the skit

There isn’t a crumb of leaven in her house: it’s Passover week, so nothing rises. This afternoon two men followed a fellow with a water jar into the house, and her husband showed them the big room upstairs, furnished and ready. (Don’t ask her how their Master knew.) Then thirteen men went up her stairs with dusty feet, and with the serving girl gone home for the feast, she never got to the basin and towel by the door.

From the stairs she hears them arguing over which of them was the greatest. Then it goes quiet, her hands stop in the dough, and she tells what she saw through the door, as John 13:4–15 tells it. The laughs come from her kitchen and her husband’s cousins from Joppa; the middle is still; and by the end, the title means more than it did at the start.

It fits a Maundy Thursday service, a Holy Week program or a women’s breakfast or tea, and it can come before the Lord’s Supper without taking any position on it. One woman, a table and real dough, with two rehearsals. The staging notes cover the dough recipe, the two moments she stops kneading, and reading the lines from recipe cards laid on the table.

Read the first page

(The HOSTESS kneads. She keeps kneading, folding and pressing the dough through the whole monologue, except where the script says she stops. She talks to the congregation like a neighbor who has leaned in at her kitchen door.)

HOSTESS: Don't bother looking for the yeast. There isn't any. Not a crumb of leaven in this house. It's the Law: "Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses." (She presses the dough flat.) So this week, nothing rises.

HOSTESS: Flat bread, seven days. You mix it, you knead it, you bake it hot and fast. No waiting. I've been at this since before sunup.

HOSTESS: And this afternoon two men followed a fellow with a water jar right into our house. And they said to my husband, and I was standing right there, "The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?" (beat) My husband took them straight upstairs. The big room. Furnished and ready. (beat) Don't ask me how their Master knew that.

HOSTESS: Two of His men, Peter and John, got the Passover ready. And in the evening He came with the rest. Thirteen men up my stairs. (beat) Thirteen pairs of feet, straight in off the road.

The script continues in the full PDF.

Characters

  • The Hostess, wife of the man who owns the house with the upper room; brisk, warm and proud of her house and her bread

Props

  • A sturdy table with a cloth (not your Communion table)
  • A large mixing bowl and a lump of plain dough with no yeast
  • A small bowl of extra flour
  • A wooden bread board
  • An apron
  • Optional: six large-print 5-by-8 cards
  • A simple robe and head covering, or plain clothes

What you get

  • The full script with stage directions
  • Cast list, props list and simple staging notes
  • Three discussion questions for a small group, youth group or Sunday school class
  • Performance rights for your church: perform it as often as you like and print copies for your cast

Performance rights

One purchase covers one church or ministry. Perform it as many times as you like, make copies for everyone in the cast and crew, adapt the lines and include it in your livestream. Please don’t resell the script or share the file publicly. Read the full license.

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Questions

Can I change the names or lines?

Yes. Change names and genders, trim lines for time or adapt a joke for your church. The script is yours to fit to your people.

Can we record and stream the performance?

Yes. You can include it in your livestream and post the recording on your church’s own channels.

How do I get the file after I buy?

Right after checkout you get a download link on the confirmation page and by email. It works for up to 20 downloads, and each copy is marked with your order so it stays licensed to your church.

Who is the seller on my receipt?

Payments are processed by Link, Stripe’s checkout, which acts as the reseller. Your card statement shows LINK.COM* CHURCHSKITS. Questions about the script itself come to us at hello@churchskits.org.

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