Script Analysis

Identify and define the drama by genre
Genre: Contemporary Drama containing mix elements of comedy and tragedy

Provide historical/cultural context for the dramas action and setting.
While Good Boys and True was written in 2009 by Roberto Aguirre Sacasa, the action of the play
takes place in the Washington DC area in the fall of 1989. When I first read the play, I immediately
connected this story with modern day. Our LGBT community is still fighting for the basic human right
to be treated like a human being. With the Black Lives Matter movement, there is national awareness
of white privilege and what it means to be privileged because of race and socio-economic status. With
rapid technological advances and social media, the government is adapting sex laws, now that sexual
images are so very accessible with the creation of the internet and cell-phones. I questioned in my
mind several times, why the 1980s? My answer: the stakes are higher. A sex tape making the rounds
at the school in a matter of hours/days and ruined a young girls life. The time removed the audience,
and we are able to really reflect on the devastating effects that this tape has caused in so short time.
The audience later finds out the reason why Brandon created the tape and presented to the football
team: to cover up the fact that he was homosexual and to prove that he was indeed straight. The
audience quickly discovers that Justin is homosexual, and that the boys are involved in some sort of
sexual relationship, if not romantic. In the 1980s, the AIDS epidemic really effect the lives of
homosexual in a negative way and created stigmas that the LGBT community cannot seem to shake
off. Some people thought of AIDS as only a gay disease and at one point in time, AIDS was called
GRIDS (Gay Relations Immune Deficiency Syndrome). In our time, while AIDS continues to be a
problem that society grapples with, it is no longer considered a death sentence physically or socially as
it once was. This merely raises the stakes for Brandon, a teen who does not want that stigma hanging
over his head.
Outline the dramatists literary and/or theatrical career.
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has accomplished a lot in his life time. Roberto Aguirre Sacasa is a gay
playwright born in Washington DC who graduated to from Yale School of Drama in 2003. Till this
day, I still have trouble believe that the playwright who wrote Good Boys and True also write on the
smash hit TV Glee and for the Archie comics since my discovery summer 2015. It is best to consider
him a jack of all trades who works with Broadway, Hollywood, Comics, and Television. He tends to
have a diverse range of subjects to write about from comic books to Catholic school scandals, but
LGBT identities and issues often arise in his works such as. Below are links to the Dramatist Play
Services inc site featuring plays written by Sacasa that included LGBT themes or themes closely
related to his life.
Based on a Totally True Story

Doctor Cerebus
Discuss your artistic vision for the production. What is the significance or importance of this
drama? What effect or impact do you wish the show to have upon the audience?
I interpreted this play as a commentary about privileges. Brandon is a Catholic hetereosexual white
male with a well off family. He is a boy, without remorse, who thought he could get away with a
terrible horrific and degrading act done to another human being. In a way, I connect to both Justin and
Cheryl because the way that they feel in the play is the way that I felt my entire private Catholic
school life. That feeling that no matter what I did, they would always be ahead of me because I wasnt
born into wealth or born with darker skin. I had to work hard. Our younger generations have taken an
interest in social activism especially when it comes to race, women, and LGBT rights. If you dont
believe me, just visit the social justice side of tumblr for five minutes. This play makes a statement
about class and identities in America. We live in a world where some people are privileged and others
are not.
While I wanted to really focus on privilege, I found myself wanting to tell another story along side
with the privilege story. A part of my heart ached for Brandon despite the terrible actions he
committed in the play. He was a scared little boy who thought he no other option out. I begin to think
about masculinity. I began to think about how our society packages us up into tiny cardboard boxes
filled with expectations of us. When we try to break free of that box, we are chastised and alienated as
outcast. Some find the strength to withstand it, while others are too afraid. Inside Brandon, I found
two characters in one. I found the charm, poster kid. The perfect obedient son. Stunning athlete.
Handsome Casanova who always had the right words to say. The boy who everyone expected him to
be. The expectation. And then there was the other Brandon. The sort of awkward dork who geeked out
over the Hardy Boys and liked the V-neck sweaters that they always wore. The boy who shared this
special connection with Justin Simmons, someone who was close and yet so far away. But no one was
allowed to see that Brandon. I guess that is why my heart ached so much.
More importantly, I wanted to leave the audience with these two big issues in mind To inspire
conversation and dialogue about what happens after and these larger themes and issues.
Discuss each characters dramatic function in the show, including each characters overall
motive /goal/desire and each characters metaphorical/emblematic value.
If I had to describe the characters function in the show in one word, I was use the word foil.
Brandon-Brandon is the center of our conflict. He needs to protect his image. It means everything to
him. His image is his power. Brandon acknowledges that straight is power. He must be seen as
stronger in order to survive this privileged world that he grew up in.
Elizabeth-I would label Elizabeth as the protagonist of our story. She struggles to hold on to the son,
the life, and the world that she once knew so very well. She struggles to sort fact from fiction and to
find the answers that she so desperately needs. She looks for the answers in Brandon when she asks
why. She searches for them in Justin as she ask if Brandon committed this heinous act because of his
relationship with Justin. She tries to make excuses for not having answers with Maddy. With Shea, she
struggles to find answers and starts to delude herself. In Cheryl, she doesnt find the answers, but
solutions.
Justin-For the beginning, Justin wants to know if Brandon is the guys on the tape. Acting as a foil for
Brandon, they are both homosexual senior boys at St. Joseph with an infinity for the Hardy Boys.
They share a very special connection to each other. While they do have a lot in common, they
represent two different things in the play. Brandon is constraint while Justin is freedom. I think a part
of Brandon envies Justin because he can be himself without the expectations weighing down on him.
Brandon has this weight that he cannot shake off. There is no other option. He can not be gay. While
that is an option for Justin, that cannot be an option for him
Maddy- Obviously, Maddy is the foil for her sister Elizabeth. They were both born into the Emerson
family and was shipped off to Garrison for school, but developed into two extremes. A public school
teacher with an infinity for outsider art and guitar players. A doctor with the perfect husband and a son
going to Darmouth. Despite Maddy being the reckless/frivolous sister, she appears to be the voice of
reason for Elizabeth in this situation. The audience expects the doctor to have the more leveled head
and objective view, but Maddy is full of wise advice that draws Elizabeth out of her delusion.
Cheryl- If the quad is the heart and soul of St. Joe, then I consider Cheryl to be the heart and soul of
Good Boys and True. She is the center of the conflict, and without her, there would not be a story. But
she also plays the foil to Erica, Brandons girlfriend. She both envies and yet looks up to Erica,
without her.
Shea- Russell Shea acts as the catalyst for the drama. The story begins to spiral down hill the moment
Russ hands Elizabeth the tape. Why? Why give Elizabeth the tape? Why risk being fired by giving this
tape to Elizabeth first? For me, I interpret as Shea possibly being in love with Elizabeth. The one who
got away. Shea is also the foil for Michael, the dad. They were best friends, two teens at St. Joe. Both
incredibly evenly matched in football skills. Both equals until the fight. On that day, Shea lost
everything. The honor. The status. A friend. And everything that Shea ever wanted, Michael had. The
status. The power. The wealth. The girl. In the second act, Shea has to show her some tough love to
help her see the truth of the world and the reality that she lives in.
Identify and discuss the conflicts that arise as a result of the collision of the various characters
motives/goal/desires.
Brandon/Elizabeth is the biggest conflict that occurs between characters. In the Brandon/Elizabeth
scenes, Elizabeth needs to know why Brandon committed this terrible act. Her world is crumpling
apart and everything that she had ever know about her son is falling apart. Brandon seems to be
dragging his feet on the issue. He dodges, ducks, and weaves by the answer.He needs to be perfect. He
needs to fit the expectation of what this privilege world wants from him. He will protect this same
privileged world that he has with all of his might.

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What are the main conflicts that arise between characters?

How does the author describe each of the main characters?

Identify and define the drama by genre

Genre: Contemporary Drama containing mix elements of comedy and tragedy

Based on a Totally True Story

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