Photo By Suzanne FelicianoLane Northcutt, 13, as Jesus dying on the cross, looked skyward during rehearsal for Good Shepherd School’s Passion Play.

Photo By Suzanne FelicianoMadison Harbin, left, and Courtney Schneider, both 14, led a procession of palm-waving crowd members into the sanctuary Wednesday during rehearsal for the Passion Play.

Photo By Suzanne FelicianoLane Northcutt, 13, as Jesus, was “nailed” to the cross during rehearsal for Good Shepherd School’s Passion Play on Wednesday.

Pews were filled with teary-eyed parents and wide-eyed elementary-aged students for Good Shepherd School’s "Passion Play" Thursday.
From the Passover meal to Jesus’ conversation with God in the Garden of Gethsemane to Peter’s denial of Jesus three times, the school’s eighth-grade students re-enacted the Easter story in two acts.
In the morning they portrayed the events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion while in the second act students portrayed the actual crucifixion scene.
The audience, made up of Good Shepherd School students and parents, was part of the action as the cast walked down the center aisle of Good Shepherd Church downtown.
Students were adorned in costumes resembling fashion during biblical times, including fabric head coverings.
Selected kindergarten through sixth-grade students took part in a "foot-washing" ceremony conducted by eighth-graders playing the part of Jesus’ apostles.
That ceremony of the younger students follows a scene in the play in which Jesus washes the feet of his apostles.
Layne Northcutt, 13, portrayed Jesus in the school’s production.
Northcutt was the second choice of his eighth-grade peers to play the character; he got the role after the class’ top vote-getter changed his mind about the part.
Northcutt, an aspiring actor, said the experience is one he won’t forget.
"I was hoping to get the part," he said. "Jesus is a pretty major role."
He said it took him only a couple of practices to learn his lines.
Northcutt said he was familiar with the story and eager to act it out after seeing previous performances of the play when he was a younger student at the school.
"We learn about Him (Jesus) in class all the time, I’ve heard this story a million times," he said. "It was really exciting for me to be Jesus."
In the play’s second act a cracking whip and clanging metal dramatize the torture Jesus suffered at the hands of soldiers during the crucifixion.
Northcutt vividly re-created the crucifixion scene by dragging a wooden cross from the back of the church to the altar while a CD of the song "The Power of the Cross" sung by Kristyn Getty was played.
He "hangs" on the wooden cross while the song continues to play and the audience goes silent.
The retelling of the Easter story is a tradition at Good Shepherd School; each year the eighth grade-class gives its own flavor to the drama.
Good Shepherd School’s religion teacher Maria Yates said in the past, performances have featured more music, strictly a narrator telling the story as well as a tenabrae (candlelight service commemorating the final hours of Christ’s life on earth).
"We try to vary it because the kids from the school see it every year," Yates said.
Yates said she goes with the strength of the eighth-grade students to determine how to retell the story.
"This group wanted to act it out," she said. "They came up with wanting to do the actual feet wash."
This year’s eighth-grade class, consisting of 30 students, worked on the play for two weeks leading up to Thursday’s performance. Yates said she created a script for the students based on the biblical version of the story.
By acting out the story, Yates said she hopes the eighth-grade students garner a new appreciation for the tale.
"You hope that when they’re actually a part of it they take it to heart," she said. "I try to get them to think about what it would be like to be there."
Gaylynn Phillips’ son, Blaine Phillips, played an apostle and member of the crowd in the play.
"It was great," she said following the performance.
She said hearing the hammer hitting metal and the cracking of the whip drew out her emotions.
Phillips said it was her first time seeing the Good Shepherd School production, but she plans to return again next year.
Mary Mucci’s granddaughter, Mary Beth Mucci, a sixth-grader, participated in the foot-washing scene of the play.
It was also Mucci’s first time seeing the Good Shepherd School performance.
"I thought it was wonderful," she said. "It really made you think about what Christ did for us."
Mucci, who attended the play with Phillips, said the play helped put her in the holiday spirit.
"It seems more like Easter now," she said.