Britain’s National Theater hopes to reopen in October after being closed for more than 200 days. But even with the shutters down, it’s been an eventful and emotional time for its staff.

By Alex Marshall

“What word can sum up the past six months? Bewildering. But there’s nothing to do but get on with it, make decisions, keep making decisions and keep as many plates spinning as you can.

We were hemorrhaging money, and we had to stop that. Our survival is a combination of several things: NT at Home, which brought in a certain amount of money, philanthropy and radical cost saving. We’ve had wage cuts across the board and very, very sadly, a round of redundancies.

We’ve had to apply for a government loan. If we don’t get that, do we go insolvent? Yeah, probably.

Of course I’m worried we might have to shut again. The whole thing is brinkmanship. We are rolling the dice and it might go wrong, but you’ve got to make the best judgment with the facts in front of you.“

Source: New York Times