I've got some neat looking effects for some "kiddy shows" by placing gobos into instruments close to the
cyc...as it seems you have got here. If it's like our school
theatre, we've got strips all across the farthest
electric back almost 3 feet infront of our
cyc that generally stay there; however, we've got lots of spare pig-tails running back there too so I sometimes place some
ERS instruments roostered off the front or back next to the strips pointing at the
cyc.
I attached a rough picture. Just be sure your
cyc's nice and tight (unlike this picture...we hadn't gotten it weighted at the bottom yet).
Also, with such instruments such as pars and fresnels, you can use the pie-pan trick to breakup the light a
bit. It's not what you're looking for in this case; however, I've seen it done and it adds a little to the compositions. One designer friend of mine said they used to use pars and backlight outside/forest scenes and just clip pie-pans to the front of the instruments in order to add some soft tree breakups. It's a small detail thing, though... you won't get anything sharp, obviously. Also, if you haven't gotten the money and budget to buy gobos, make them w/ the pie-pan trick too. Just cut them the right size and you're good.
Somebody mentioned wood a while ago in doing something similar to this...I'd be a
bit hesitant to use wood as a
gobo as...it's...wood...and I'd think it would burn or just get kinda unsafe easily under such heat. Pie-pans are commonly used to make gobos for
ERS instruments in a pinch and withstand intense heat anyway w/ being cooked w/ and all.
Hope this helps.