The show’s Friday and Saturday night performances had been scrapped due to Victoria’s snap lockdown, announced on Thursday to come into effect at 11.59 pm Thursday night.
Mr Desmond made the call to cancel the opening performance an hour before the curtain was due to rise, despite it still being permitted as restrictions had yet to change at the time.
“The lockdown was introduced not because the danger began at midnight but it was time to get the house in order. I had to make the call,” Mr Desmond said.
“My default position is student safety (first) . . . I didn’t know if there was going to be somebody in the audience who had the virus.”
He said it was the same logic which led him to close St Monica’s in Wodonga earlier this week, and he pledged he would move “heaven and earth” to ensure the students were able to get back on a stage – in front of either a live audience or cameras – once it was “safe to do so”.
“I made the decision knowing it would be a difficult pill to swallow,” he said.
“I know I’m not making many friends with a decision like this . . . I know some other events went ahead last night but that’s nothing I can control.”
With an hour to go before the show, students’ make-up was complete and they were about to get into costume, but Notre Dame principal John Cortese said the make-up was streaked with tears after the announcement.
Mr Cortese said he'd tried to get the performance to go on behind closed doors so it could be filmed and sent out to families.
However Mr Desmond denied that request as well, and said there was a risk a staff member or student could also unknowingly have the virus.
Mr Cortese said they had already been “shattered” by the cancellation of the final two shows, with many students seeing last year’s production scrapped by coronavirus restrictions.
“We sought permission to do it without a crowd so we could film it and show everyone and that was knocked back,” he said.
Staff at Riverlinks turned away theatre-goers who’d arrived early and began telling those driving into parking areas that the performance had been cancelled.
On Friday, the cast, crew and teachers reassessed over a Zoom call to check in.
“Some of the kids were quite upset last night and needed a bit more support, tomorrow it’ll be someone else who needs a bit more of a pick-me-up,” Mr Cortese said.
He said it would prove a challenge to reschedule the show later in the year with theatres around Shepparton heavily booked and students’ exams a factor in when a show could be held.
18°C