With Eileen McNamara overseeing the production, the school play in 1951 was Cheaper By The Dozen. The book follows how the 12 children and wife of an efficiency engineer learn the best or at least most efficient way of doing everything from buying groceries to drying themselves after a bath. (Personal note: I remember the prescribed towel drying to this day but not most other details. Many people still say I'm all wet. Nevertheless, the past seldom lets us abandon it and it seldom abandons us even in senility.)