“Right now, I’m figuring out how to make—or come across—10 hot pink nun habits in men’s sizes,” says Daniel Ellis-Ferris, Founder and Executive Producer of Brooklyn’s LoftOpera, on organizing the company’s June production of Le Comte Ory. “So that’s interesting.”

Italian composer Gioachino Rossini’s 1828 comic opera follows the (mis)adventures of frolicsome hornball Count Ory in 13th century France.

“This is one of the most whimsical pieces we’ve done,” says Ellis-Ferris. “Comedy isn’t new to us, but this one is just super ‘outside’ —we’ve got guys posing as nuns; astroturf; 2,500 pieces of fake fruit; a moving stage; circus performers and aerialists… It’s totally ridiculous; almost unexplainable. It’s new for us to be doing something this playful.”