Every year, the Winter Carnival theme compels the Dartmouth community to devise countless puns, clever designs, and tie-in events for the affair.
This year's "Wizard of Oz" theme, first conceived by Winter Carnival co-chair Ryan Bennett '04 and officially titled "There's Snow Place Like Home," was supposed to yield an Emerald City on the Green, a drag ball titled "You're not in Kansas anymore" and even a showing of "The Wizard of Oz" to the music of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon."
The Carnival theme is generally decided at the end of each Fall term. To debut this year's theme, representatives from the four classes, dressed as members of "The Wizard of Oz" cast -- Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Lion -- descended upon the campus late last term, handing out candy and information leaflets.
"It was a success," Anne Cloudman '02, one of the Winter Carnival co-chairs, said. "Students seemed excited about the theme and were amused by the students in costume."
The Dartmouth Rainbow Alliance was also excited about this year's theme in conjunction with their annual drag ball. "It gives us a lot to work with," DRA co-chair Allyson Wendt '02 said. "I have a feeling we'll have a lot of Dorothys and Glinda the Good Witches this year."
Both the Winter Carnival Committee and the DRA will use the obvious connections between the Emerald City and Dartmouth to further enhance the theme.
"The Emerald City theme ties back to Dartmouth, but subtly," Wendt said.
Thursday night, the DRA decorated Collis Commonground as the Emerald City for the drag ball. It featured a fashion walk and the Chicago Kings, a drag king group performing lip synching and sketch comedy.
The Winter Carnival Committee is also playing with the idea of the Emerald City as Dartmouth. The carnival poster features a picture of Dorothy walking up the yellow brick road toward an Emerald City centered round Dartmouth Hall.
The snow sculpture is also supposed to be the Emerald City, but it did not really get off the ground due to "poor conditions and diminished student support," Cloudman said.
Another Carnival feature is a big-screen showing of the cult classic "The Wizard of Oz" combined with Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon."
Although the Pink Floyd album has no confirmed connection to the movie, when played in conjunction, amazing "coincidences" and common threads emerge between the movie and album.
