No one knows better than MHS when it comes to the annual fall drama production. The Baldwin Auditorium went back to the 1950s for a classic rendition of the hop-sock radio and hit television series, Father Knows Best, created by Ed James in the 1940s.

The show is a mix of cookie-cutter smiles, real telephones (gasp), and loafers. But don’t be fooled by the show’s picture-perfect Polaroid façade – dramedy ensues, and there’s even a runaway-date scandal.

The suburban haven of Springfield starred seniors Ray Atkin and Jacky Bernhard in the leading roles of Jim and Margaret Anderson – but let’s just refer to them as “father” and “mother.”

The two could give Mr. and Mrs. Brady from The Brady Bunch a run for their money – while wearing a bit more stylish attire. Atkin’s comedic instinct and Bernhard’s mawkish charm made for the ideal, stereotypical, and ignorant 50s father and the domesticated 50s mother.

“I really pulled through these last two weeks,” Atkin said. “I fully engulfed myself into my role, and it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”

“We’re all just so in love with this show,” his co-star Bernhard added. “The passion put into the show is possibly incomparable to that of any other, and I think that shows on the stage.”

Moreover, this happened to be Atkin’s acting debut, but that was the one thing that the stage did not show.

“This is my first show in my whole high school career, and I ended up getting the lead,” he said. “It has been the most amazing experience that I’ve ever had to go through. It’s going to be really hard to say goodbye even though this was my first show and probably my last one. My cast mates have grown to be a part of me – we’re a family.”

Indeed, they were a family. Not one cast member, nor director, failed to mention that one word their show revolved around – family.

“I’m so happy that senior year I get a great group of kids who are so excited to work together every day and just put on this show,” senior Mike Savidge said. “We became a family from the minute we got our roles, and that makes it very meaningful for me, and it’s going to be very hard to let go of it tonight.”

Of course, their family included Betty, Bud, and Kathy, played by Nicole Heneveld, Will Meurer, and Courtney Taylor.

Each child exhibits his or her own coming-of-age scenario that, arguably, every member of the audience could relate to. In the midst of Betty’s dating drama encoded by her father’s over-protectiveness comes Bud just trying to be the ‘man’ of the house while little Kathy simply wants some attention from everyone – and she gets it. In fact, they all get what they’re striving for at the start of the show, but that was only made possible through effort both on and off the stage.

“Well we started in September and from the very first run-through, you could tell that everyone just loved their characters – they got into it, you could hear the inflections in their voices that they just loved being here, that they were thankful for their roles, and that they were willing to put in, for the next two months, hours of rehearsal, hours of hard work, hours of being with that role – and just having to put away yourself and be that person, and it’s just amazing what two months of being a different person can do,” Heneveld said.

“And then on the night of the show you just see – wow, these people really do, after all that hard work, after trying to be someone else, you truly realize that it’s not trying to be someone else, this is you now, this is you on the stage, this is who you are,” she said. “After all of that, you realize that you really do love what you do here.”

Heneveld, who is also the president of the National Thespian Honor Society, displayed the quintessential quirks and mannerisms of a naive and love-struck teenage girl as she battles the reign of a blissfully unaware father. Her rebellions throughout the show remind us that, sometimes, conformities are no longer in style when a new generation emerges.

Yet, as the curtain closed and some conformities were broken, or altered, rather, each character seemed to have their own happy-ending. Kathy was the princess, Bud was a man, Betty got her boyfriend, Margaret triumphed over the “garden club,” and Father just got his family back. The family got each other back.

“It’s always amazing how – in the eleventh hour – everything just seems to come together,” Director Ms. Calcagni said.

And perhaps that is just what makes Father Knows Best hit so close to home, literally and figuratively. The conservation of those wholesome, made-for-television family values sort of make us question, well, what exactly are family values?

The show teaches us that values stem from when everything sort of just comes together — seeing imperfections as perfections and believing that being a family, after hard work, becomes effortless. The stage exhibited the fact that this cast wasn’t pretending to be a family because they already were a family.

“It’s a real humbling experience because when you see them in the performance, you see them blossom – it’s a really beautiful thing to witness,” director Ms. Lea said.

“And it’s sad to see it go,” Calcagni added.

It is sad to see it go, as every member, seniors especially, agreed. Amidst its play on gender roles and tradition, Father Knows Best addresses every parent’s fear of a child growing up and every child’s fear of being held back from that growth. It addresses the inevitable process of letting go. Kids grow up. High school ends.

But as Father says, ‘This house is your home,’ the play instills the belief that you can leave your home, but your home will never leave you.

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