Scenes from The Crunch

The pretty successful and popular Shakespeare & Co. in Lenox, MA is taking drastic steps:

Shakespeare & Company is laying off seven employees, reducing two others to part-time, and instituting a 10 percent pay cut for the remaining 41 year-round staff as part of a restructuring plan to save $900,000. Theater officials announced on Tuesday that the company's budget will go from $5.6 million for the current fiscal year to $4.7 million for the fiscal year that begins on April 1. In addition to layoffs and payroll reductions, the three founders of the 32-year old theater group will each lose eight weeks of pay in order to prevent further layoffs and reductions, according to artistic director Tina Packer.

"We want the blooming thing to survive," said Packer.