- Spinner Parade
I'm working at a historical fair/time travel/archaeological dig something like the St. Mary's books. The project is like a precisely designed mummer's parade or like the counter-clockwise march at Mecca, but also part Busby Berkeley. Call it a Spinner Parade. The current project is being run by Marlo Thomas, she's a guest designer, and the dance or whatever it is to be patterned, so that the words and music and players all fit into a big circle, and move around in a particular pattern. It's important that the steps and words exactly equal one another so that the play fits within the circle's boundaries with a kaleidoscope pattern; Marlo is very excited and tries to get it done with a repeating pattern that is too short and too simple, and the pattern mistress working with her is trying to convince her to alter it to get the best image. We're running a dress rehearsal and one of my mothers-in-law (I have several) very much wants to take a role in whatever pageant/adventure we're working in, and she's standing in place but I can tell that her feet are sore and she's wearing heels, and there's something else that's wrong with her costume.
The mil's shoes are important so she can take part in this: she has to have comfy shoes! The place is large and full of people working and planning: I'm a low-level planner, sort of a dog's body/researcher, and so it's my task to go and find the person responsible for her clothing, etc., I know the person's profession (costumer) and I know the person but I can't remember his name, but he looks like Rhys Ifans, anyway, and I know (or am told) he's in the pub across the street.
The pub is a huge warehouse with an entrance that opens like a plain old garage door, but it also has an incredibly ornate other entrance. I push up the garage door and in the front of the pub, there is a group of historians/archaeologists sitting at a table on a raised platform, and one of them is the guy I'm looking for. I say I need to talk to the costumer and they point to him and move over to let me sit by him or stand by him and shout in his ear (it's very noisy in the pub). I say there's something the MIL needs (using her name which I also don't remember), and he says, "right, she needs xxx," and I say yes, and, and then he says "and she needs comfortable shoes" and I say Yes! and wake up.