Treat the cutouts as "Extras." If a scene calls for crowd scenes, use cardboard cutouts in place of real people. Cardboard cutout "extras" will cost less in terms of costuming and require no blocking sessions when compared to using real "extras." The effect, if carried out through the entire production, can be extremely meaningful in context, including in dramatic shows. Build ground row flats that feature cutout people for quick scene changes. Use sound effects of "crowd noises" to sell the device.
Use cutouts of the cast members as "stand ins." For certain types of "traveling scenes" or "bridge" scenes, substitute cardboard cutouts of actors for the real performers. The 1978 Broadway musical "They're Playing Our Song," for example, featured silhouetted cutouts representing stars Lucie Arnaz and Robert Klein to convey "traveling" action between major scenes. Rather than showing the character of Vernon telephoning Sonja from a pay phone, cutout characters "stood in" for Klein and Arnaz, allowing the actors to change costumes during the bridge. The idea, created by Douglas W. Schmidt, was sparkling. Cardboard cutouts of actors can also be used in a humorous context as actor "stand ins" for scenes that otherwise would involve potentially dangerous special effects: rather than attempting to "fly" Peter Pan or "fall" Alice into a Rabbit Hole, use cutout figures instead. The audience will "get it" particularly if you use the device several times during the production.
Employ cutouts for achieving "the impossible." The 1977 Broadway musical "On The Twentieth Century," designed by Tony Award-winner Robin Wagner, featured a cutout, scale-model passenger train traveling through the night between Chicago and New York to achieve what otherwise would have been an impossible effect. The train was obviously not real but the trick was both funny and illustrative. A flat, life-sized model of the front end of the train was also used in this production to hilarious effect. Cutouts illustrating "impossible" ideas are particularly good for covering any exposition in the script. Cutouts can be used for very difficult prop items like cars for musicals like "Gypsy," "Grease" and "Annie," or the cattle and fields dream sequence in "Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat."
Use cutouts as substitutes for sets, actors, and props in a tour de force of cardboard cutouts! Take a scene in "Cabaret," for example, and replace everything and everybody with cardboard cutouts, except for a real, live Sally Bowles. The message and the effect can be startling, exactly what an absurdist production requires.