Plot
This Act challenges the fairy-tale idea that wishes guarantee happiness.
What is Act II?
This character trades his cow for magic beans, setting major events in motion.
Who is Jack?
These desires drive the plot but also create unintended consequences.
What are the character's wishes?
Into the Woods follows this universal structure.
What is the Hero's Journey?
These two royal brothers reveal their shallow views of love in “Agony.”
Who are Cinderella’s Prince and Rapunzel’s Prince?
This curse prevents the Baker and his Wife from having a child
What is the witch's curse?
After facing the Wolf, this character becomes more self-reliant and less naïve.
Who is Little Red Riding Hood?
This setting represents uncertainty, danger, and moral testing.
What are the woods?
Getting what they wished for leads many characters to experience this unexpected outcome.
What is disappointment (or regret) or a desire for more?
This character's desire for revenge is the driving force of Act II.
Who is the giant's wife?
This event at the start of Act II destroys the characters’ “happily ever after.”
What is the giant falling?
This character begins the story desperate for a child and ends it learning to be a responsible parent.
Who is the Baker?
value, innocence, beauty, and security could be represented by these things.
Much of Act II’s tension centers on the characters doing this to one another.
What is blaming each other?
This is Cinderella's wish.
What is "to go to the Festival"?
These four magical items must be collected to break the curse.
The cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, the slipper as pure as gold.
This character sings “Moments in the Woods” while questioning her choices and desires.
Who is the Baker's Wife?
This theme is reinforced when the surviving characters unite at the end.
What is community (or shared responsibility)?
This internal struggle affects Cinderella when deciding between the Prince and her independence.
What is choosing between security and self-fulfillment? (choices)
This character is imprisoned by her mother's love.
Who is Rapunzel?
This storytelling device guides the audience through Act I before meeting an unexpected fate.
Who/What is the narrator?
This character warns that “Children will listen.”
Who is the Witch?
This recurring lyric emphasizes the responsibility adults have toward the next generation.
What is "children will listen."
The collapse of traditional fairy-tale endings reinforces this central theme about responsibility.
What is actions have consequences?
These are the 3 persons of the character who drives the plot.
Who are t he narrator, the mysterious man, and the Baker's father?