Wollongong's Merrigong Theatre Company is currently experiencing its "darkest hour".
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However, the not-for-profit's management say they are hopeful as they work with levels of government to ensure its ongoing viability.
Merrigong's artistic director Simon Hinton said their current projections show a likely $4 million downturn in revenue by the end of this calendar year.
He said they'd had 380 performances cancelled to date due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We're in an industry that was shut down on March 18, and has no clear date for when we would open at any viable level," he said.
Mr Hinton said they were working with council and other levels of government to ensure the future sustainability of the organisation.
"But it's certainly our darkest hour," he said.
"We're obviously, like most of our industry, under extreme financial stress.
"In operating our venues, we earn 80 per cent of our revenue from box office and venue hire, and that was basically turned off like a tap on March 18.
"We are in receipt of JobKeeper, at least until the end of September, so that has kept the wolf from the door for now.
"We're waiting on some information on state government funding, and we're waiting to see if there will be any extension to JobKeeper."
Mr Hinton said they hoped to have some events up and running from mid-September, but that will depend on whether restrictions on venue capacity are lifted.
"At the moment, we could open our venues, but only at one person per four square metres, which makes theatres totally non-viable, because that's about one in four seats," he said.
"Performing arts venues really operate usually needing 70 to 80 per cent capacity to break even on an event.
"We have COVID safe plans in place, training and all kinds of things for our venues, but at the moment, until the capacities are larger, it's just not viable to do anything but a handful of small events."
Mr Hinton said unless there was additional government support between now and the end of 2020, their "worst case modelling" shows they would have had exhausted their financial reserves by late in the year.
"The community have been incredible," he said.
"A lot of people who held tickets to cancelled performances have turned that money into tax deductible donations to Merrigong, (as) we're a registered charity.
"That's been a great help, but it's not going to save the organisation without us being able to re-open without those restrictions."
Meanwhile, in response to the COVID-19 crisis and its effect on employment opportunities for performing artists, Merrigong recently 'rebooted' its MERRIGONGX Artists' Program for 2020.
A dozen artists will share in $24,000 funding for the development of new performance projects.
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