SybilSez...

Sybil Bruncheon has been performing on stage, radio, TV, film, and in various Vaudeville, burlesque, church basement, county fair, and sideshow....uh..."venues" for most of her 29 years. She is available for bookings for just about anything and can be reached at bruncheon@hotmail.com and on her website sybilbruncheon.com. She is a proud member of the Actors Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild. Her erdo number is 16.

We all know about the French Revolution and that Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, the king and queen of France, were eventually beheaded along with thousands of others by the raging mobs of deprived citizens. We were told that it was extreme poverty and injustice that triggered this turbulent time... BUT... did you know that it was actually a small, in-house production of a play created for all the nobility living in and around the great palace of Versailles? It's true!!!.. Marie Antoinette scheduled her little acting troupe to put on a musical "divertissement" for the King and about 500 of his guests in their dinner-theatre, La Maison de Caprice Avec Collations et Comédie... the play? "Monsieur Bo-Jangles Va à la Pêche Et Attrape Une Pastèque"... which roughly translates to "Mr. Bojangles Goes A-Fishin' and Catches Hisself a Watermelon"... well! It wasn't just the tone of the little play-lette that aroused the servants, but it was the fact that it was done in black-face! Within the first 8 minutes of the opening number, "I Rows My Un Petite Boat Down The Mississippi!", that a riot broke out which engulfed the famous Hall of Mirrors, the entire palace complex, and spread out onto the grounds. Statues, fountains, and royal croquet sets were smashed, vandalized, and even urinated upon!... And the revolution, the "Glorious Revolution", was aflame and underway!... and that's what happened on Halloween night, October 31st, 1789.

(with great thanks to Tallulah Belulah Dahling for her photo)

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