Carousel was produced in the traditional wing-and drop manner, with many full-stage painted drops and cut-drops.
A special wooden-groundrow was constructed with long flippers that could transform from a view of the harbor to a view of the carnival. This served as an additional two painted drops, and allowed the cyclorama to be used in each of those settings.
The opening prologue for the show included women weaving in a factory, and a montage that led into the opening carousel setting. Instead of building a full carousel, we built a single carousel horse. The scene was played on the horse behing a white scrim. A full-stage, animated carousel was projected onto the actors in this manner. The carousel is a computer model that I created and animated for the scene.
The women weaving in the factory was a dance behing the white scrim while animated weaving machines danced around them (also projected).
