Hi Guys, Thank you so much for all the input and suggestions!
A few more details: This is being used during the "opening credits" for a Zombie Burlesque show (it's okay to be a little jealous, it's pretty awesome). Our Zombies are "made" as a reaction to Nuclear Fallout, since the show is performed here in Vegas, we have a long history with Nuclear Test sites. So at the start of the show we have a fake news reel on a
projector screen showing employees working at the Nuclear Test site, being productive for the war, wholesome 50's America all the way. At the end of the news reel there is a large Nuclear explosion with
Mushroom cloud on
screen. The following scene is the show "credits" where our zombie actors interact with a video wall behind them, essentially blending the live
stage action with the
screen at their back.
My artistic director would like a transition from this "
projector screen in front" to "actors with a
screen behind them" and wants the
projector screen to be withdrawn as the
mushroom cloud forms on
screen to
reveal a "real"
mushroom cloud on
stage.
We don't really have the space for Dry Ice during this transition (also that gets cost prohibitive when being run 6 nights a week for the foreseeable future). But I do think the rolling that dry ice naturally does would be perfect, it's a bummer it won't work for us in this instance. We also can't use any kind of structure that can't be VERY quickly struck from the
stage.
I'm leaning towards using some sort of
flat horizontal surface to manipulate the top of the
fog plume into a
mushroom cap. We might even be able to use a performer holding some sort of signage that would then be pulled up to
reveal the words "Credits" sort of like a ring girl at a boxing match? Hokey or brilliant?