by Justin Ayer. @justayer.
AUBURN HILL, Mich. - Local pharmacist and Father of three Craig Robbins woke from his slumber late last night after having a nightmare where he had forgotten all the lines from his high school role of Frank from Showboat, which marked his last stage performance over 32 years ago, sources confirmed.
“I was on stage and my big villainous play inside of a play scene came up and I just blanked,” he noted, still in a cold sweat. “It was so real, I could feel them staring at me. I have kids, a mortgage, a job and a wife, but my biggest fear is clearly that I’ll forget my lines in a show that happened three decades ago, in front of people I never speak to, in a school that is now closed due to asbestos. I mean, it could happen,” he added.
Studies have shown that these dreams are most common in people who acted in a maximum of three (3) shows during their teenage years. Dr. Grace Harris, a top researcher at the Sleep Disorder Center of Los Angeles, weighed in on the unique case.
“In all my years studying dreams, I’ve never seen one resurface like this,” she noted, surrounded by a top brass research team. “It’s as if his mind, despite all the real and important things happening in his life, actually believes he may one day be back on stage and forget his lines. It’s chilling,” she added while applying for a government grant to study him further.
Cheryl Robbins, Craig’s wife, has her own thoughts on her husband’s evening terror.
“I think he misses it - the stage,” she noted while holding a pair of prayer beads. “I once saw a single tear run down his cheek when he was looking through his old yearbook’s Drama Club page. He’s always the first to jump up and lead prayer at church, always cracking jokes and movie quotes at barbeques, even sings to the dogs in a funny voice. But, I mean… he literally can’t end up performing in this very specific high school production again. He does know that, right?” she questioned.
At press time, Robbins was seen dreading the task of announcing winning raffle numbers at the youth basketball fundraiser, as, to him, this was “practically the same as performing Showboat in school” even though it is in no way the same. He was last seen stretching and performing vocal warmups before chaperoning his daughter’s middle school dinner dance.