“I was raised to be charming, not sincere,” drawls Jeffrey Brian Adams ’10 to a disillusioned Monique Hafen ’10. The audience laughs. The music strikes up.

This summer, the former theatre majors starred as Cinderella and her Prince—with Noelani Neal ’13 as Rapunzel—in the San Francisco Playhouse production of Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award–winning musical that casts familiar fairy tale characters in new light. Adams recently earned his MFA in acting from the New School for Drama, and Hafen has received best actress awards for several Bay Area performances. Neal, who expertly managed 14 feet of hair for the show, has been teaching dance and acting locally in musical theatre.

As undergrads, Hafen and Adams shared the stage in two SCU productions and countless improv shows with their troupe, Inoperable Humor. That shared history lent an ease to their collaboration when they began rehearsing and performing Into the Woods, says Hafen. Which is good, since they will soon have spent half the year working side by side. In rehearsal now, the two will co-star in San Francisco Playhouse’s holiday show Promises, Promises, opening Nov. 18 and running through early January.