Lloyd Boyd - Nursing
What are five relevant Given Circumstances to that character? Use a sentence to explain each one so you have five sentences total.
Lloyd committed terrible acts while in the military.
Lloyd wants to die because of what he has done.
Lloyd signed a waiver to be a disease test subject.
Lloyd tries to hang himself while in his display room.
Lloyd gets a new nurse, Joan, who eventually ends up killing him.
What do they want and Why do they want this? Use three sentences to answer this.
Lloyd Boyd signed up to be a disease test subject. He did so because he wants to pay for the horrible crimes he did while deployed in Kabul. Also, eventually wants to die and feels the only way to make amends before dying would be to be "tortured" in front of audiences.
What are five examples of tactics/verbs that they use throughout the play? Five Verbs
Provoke, Reveal, Corrupt, Regret, Reject
Cite an example/moment in the play where they use that tactic/verb? One sentence.
Verb: Reveal
So if you need to say something to me, you should just say it. She goes into her purse, produces a small photograph, hands it to Lloyd. He looks at it for a long time. How old is he? Two. Almost two‐and‐a‐half. What’s his name? Benjamin. I call him Benji... He has your eyes. I had no idea. pg.44
Monologue
What page number is the monologue you are looking at from? Single word
Page.27
Who are they speaking to and what is their relationship to that person/people? Single sentence.
Lloyd is speaking to his brother Joe.
What do they want from the person/people they are talking to? Single sentence
Lloyd rejects Joe's offer to leave the disease center and live with him and tries to make Joe angry so he leaves.
Why do they speak uninterrupted? Think about this a little. Normally, we don’t get to just talk a long time without another person answering us. Political Speeches are an example where the speaker is uninterrupted. A Thank You speech after getting a reward. Why does this character get to speak uninterrupted? What is your opinion? Five Sentences
Lloyd is probably given the moment to speak uninterrupted to emphasize multiple aspects of his character. This monologue further shows that Lloyd is messed up in the head and is willing to do anything to stay in the disease center. It also shows how desperate he is to thwart and reject Joe's plan to persuade Lloyd to leave. Lloyd being uninterrupted can also add a sort of ferocity to his story.
Themes
What would you identify as the theme of the play? What is the play About?
I would say that the theme to this dark and humorous play is that living in pain is a much worse cross to bare than to die. Lloyd knew that what he was doing would make up for what he did while deployed. Unfortunately for Lloyd, his lust for death would never be conquered until he lived out his own hell. Having committed war crimes, Lloyd signs himself up for hell. This is a hell where he is caged like a zoo animal and is injected with multiple different diseases (Black Death, Cholera, etc), all of which he heals from, until he is eventually killed by the fictional STD, Blackfrost.
What in the play resonated with you right now? What felt relevant to you? What did you identify with?
Something that resonated within me from this play was Lloyd's regret. There are not many things that I regret doing in my life, but for the few things I do regret, I wish there was some way to fully gain closure. There are two decisions I have made in my life that changed it forever and I found that the only way to be content with what they have caused is to adapt, overcome, and avoid dwelling on them. I have a very complicated view of suicide as well, so Lloyd's suicidal tendencies angered me, but I also understood where he was coming from. In my opinion, suicide is never the answer and is a cowardice act, however, for some cases I can understand why someone does it/feels a need to.
Excellent work Collin. I am especially impressed by the tactics you chose for Lloyd. I think provoke and especially Corrupt are very strong tactics to choose for this character. If you were performing the role of Lloyd, those tactics would serve you very well in your scene work. I also really love the theme you identified; very powerful. The way you that you phrased "lust for death would never be conquered" is just fantastic. Your emotional intelligence and facility with the inner feelings makes me very excited to see what you will create for your final monologue
. Thank you for your work!