The University’s own English professor, Dr. John Vance, is bringing a taste of Broadway to Athens in the form of “SNOW,” a Snow White parody.

“I love fractured fairy tales of all kinds,” Vance said. “This idea started seven years ago in a fit of amusement. Finally, last year I went back to it after pecking at it for several years.”

Put on by the JV (John Vance) productions, this play consists of six actors playing 11 different roles, as well as two rehearsal assistants and a stage manager.

Characters mirror those in Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” including Snow Weiss (a.k.a. Snow White) a brainless Broadway ingénue, Joey Cacciatore (the hunter), a wicked stepmother, and seven OAFS (dwarfs).

“I pick my own casts,” Vance said. “The play is a straight parody and follows the story as it is told. The only deviation is the stepmother has a lover.”

Even the names in this pun-filled play are parodies.

“Cacciatore is an Italian hunter and oafs stand for Outcast of Atlantic and Flatbush Streets, which are streets in Brooklyn, New York,” Vance said.

“I play three characters really. One is just one of the ‘kids’ or chorus running throughout the show. The second is Joey Cacciatore. He is the fellow in the play who is supposed to kill Snow Weiss for the evil step-mother,” said Stuart Ivy, manager at the College of Veterinary Medicine and staff council president.

“The third is Will. He’s one of the seven OAFS, constantly sneezing and coughing. He is perennially (W)-ill.”

“I play Joy, the character who parallels Happy the Dwarf in the original Snow White,” said Kailey Rhodes, a junior from Macon. “This is my first ‘fractured fairytale’ and my first onstage moment in Athens, although I’ve been in productions in Macon, Ga. and Greenville, South Carolina.”

“This play is full of humor of all kinds: bawdy, witty, pun-filled humor,” said Vance, who speaks from experience having written and produced 35 plays since 1988.

Although it is based on a children’s fairy tale, this show is not intended for children.

“The plot is very simple, just as the original Snow White story was, but this play’s momentum doesn’t come from plot so much as witty dialogue and outrageous character play. It makes for a very easy-going and enjoyable viewing experience,” said Stephanie Kingsley, the rehearsal manager and junior from Fort Mill, S.C.

The cast is as excited to witness how the audience will receive the show as they are to perform it.

“I can’t wait to see the audiences’ reactions to the jokes and all the characters’ different roles,” Rhodes said.

“We all saw ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarves’ as children. Well, rampant with sexual humor and allusions to pop culture, SNOW is a version for adults, a never-ending stream of knee-slapping ‘aha!’ moments that only the big kids will get,” Kingsley said.