Lawrence.com

The actors in The Evaporated Milk Society will be hard to miss around the Country Club Plaza area in Kansas City, Mo. After all, there are few troupes in operation with members patrolling the streets on 10-foot stilts.

Fittingly, the short play they're working on is called "A Tall Tale," and it's all part of an experiment to see how Kansas City residents � who are used to traveling musicals and dinner theater � will relate to free, in-your-face theater performed outdoors.

It's the goal of the group to provide a wide variety of productions, without being pigeonholed into a certain format. "A Tall Tale" certainly meets that bill.

"The actual play is about 10 minutes long. It moves at a light-speed pace and is not dialogue heavy," founder Randall Cohn says.

The troupe's last play was staged indoors and focused on Jewish mysticism. Its new work is a far cry from that endeavor, and EMS planned it that way.

"It's removed from an exterior point of view. We have broader things to do," Cohn says.

"There is a diversity to work with in the medium, and I want to assert that vastness. Ang Lee ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Ride With the Devil") with every movie strives to do different things. He's not limited by critics and audiences."

"A Tall Tale" is the result of collaborations with other Kansas City actors, combining classic comedia-style with other theatrical elements. It's meant to be dazzling, with music, eye-popping costumes and really tall actors commanding attention. It's also meant to be rapid-fire funny by relying on bumbling pratfalls and physical comedy.

Cohn is sharing directing chores with Allison Waters, and he describes their relationship as "100 percent co-collaborators." They also are acting in the production, along with fellow cast members Megan Downes, Ruth Dyer, Laura Frank, Susan Garrett, Justin Guthrie, Erik Pratt, Sarah Rooney and J.D. Woody.

The play starts off with the actors, on stilts, moving up and down the streets, performing songs and vignettes geared to attract a crowd. From there they move to a preselected performance space where they stage the main story.

And what a fantastical, flight-of-fancy it is. It tells about a group of mammalian farmers frightened off their land by scary-looking insects and the efforts of mystical birds to bring the two warring groups together.

Along with using stilts to attract attention, the group uses them as another training tool, Cohn says.

"Stilts are fun to work with, and fun to watch. Stilts are often used as a training tool. They force the performer to focus on his center of balance," Cohn says.