JIMMY GOLEN
Associated Press
It was during Act 1 of the final dress rehearsal for Puccini's "La Rondine" at the Peabody Conservatory that the school president sent out an email canceling all nonessential gatherings because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Cast members quickly messaged friends, who streamed into the theater to catch the remainder of the only performance in the scheduled four-day run.
After all, the show must go on. And the graduation. And the senior sunrise, the pub crawl, the lake plunge and dozens of other ceremonies, productions and traditions that college students scrambled to salvage — a last, lasting memory before they were kicked off campus to ride out the outbreak from home.
"I've been following the news, and it doesn't look like (graduation) is going to happen
