I need some help with  ideas for the New York scene

What we did was create six or eight 4' x 8' "flats" out of black foamcore that were cut to the shapes of the older buildings, nestled together in New York City.  We put 1" x 2" wooden borders along all the edges (back side) to make them more sturdy and then drilled evenly spaced holes all along the edges (and some across the surface of the flats) to define the buildings as they were "meshed together."  We inserted those cheap, tiny, white Christmas lights into the holes from behind the flats and lit them up for the scene.  It was inexpensive and fairly simple to do, and without very much detail, looked impressionistic and yet very "Broadway" at the same time.  Since they were all "fan folded" together, it was simple and quick to put them in place, free standing, and get it powered up from the board.  (We wanted to bring them up with the rest of the scene lighting and fade them out, rather than abruptly turn them off at the end of the scene.)  The audience had no problem understanding that was supposed to be NYC.

We cut out foamboard to make the NYC skyline mounting it on a frame (3 sections) and used approx 800 white christmas tree lights throughout the buildings. Had to use hot glue over the tips of the bulbs to diffuse the lights. If I might say so myself, IT WAS AWESOME! There is an unlit picture of it on our website if you'd like to take a peek.  Don't know where you're located, but I still have this set.  Sorry for the inadequate nature of the website, but it is under construction.

HI,

Hi Janet,