One-Act Play Review: “Secret in the Wings”

Written by: Mollie Morgan

On October 23, 2025, Savannah Country Day's Theater program opened the one-act play "Secret in the Wings," headlined in Jelks Auditorium at SCDS. The plot of the play uses the story of a young, frightened girl who was left by her parents to be babysat by an ogre-like man. The babysitter reads dark and mysterious fairy tales to the girl that are then showcased on stage. I think the structure of the piece is unique because, when watching, it seemed that every time a destructive event was about to happen, the story shifted to another ending, with the disaster being avoided. This type of narrating intrigued me as the viewer, adding suspense to my experience. My favorite part of the play by far was the ending scene, which fully captured the true meaning of the twisted storytelling and how much children listen, as Mr. Venhaus stated in his opening comments to the audience, which confused me at first, but finally connected later in the play. The play competed in the GHSA one-act play competition on November 1st at SCDS and won first runner-up with a score of 97.5/100 in the 3A GHSA one-act for 2025. Many came home with special awards: Noland Taylor, Paxton Towe, and Gabby Galoni. Normally, 2 All-Star Cast awards are given to each school, but the judges insisted on making an exception to award 3 awards to SCDS! For the 3rd time, the best director award went to James Venhaus. Technical execution awards went to Blue Griffith, Tanner Kaminsky, Paxton Towe, Caroline Bergmann, Dabney Anderson, and Kharis Ott. Finally, the judges created a special award to recognize the actors who played the Three Blind Queens and the Princess. I would rate the play a strong 9 from my perspective, but from a professional theatre judge's perspective, I believe the judges felt connected to the performance with the combination of excellent storytelling and dramatic reflection, leading to another SCDS success!