Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

1991

Thesis Director

David Radavich

Abstract

While there have been a few creative theses written in the English department, those written up till now have consisted of collections of short stories and poetry. This is the first play to have been conceived and written for a Master's Thesis at Eastern Illinois University. The Thesis is comprised of two major parts: an introduction and the play, itself.

The introduction deals with what the goals of writing the Thesis were, what research went into reaching these goals, what the characters in the play were attempting to communicate to the reader/audience, and whether the resulting play deviated from the original proposal, and if so, how it differed and to what degree the end results could be justified in terms of the original quest.

The original goal was to write a play based upon an in-depth study of suicides among college students. The subsequent play, "Destination Zero," left facts and statistics far behind as it delved instead into the emotions inherent in such situations. "Destination Zero" touches on truth, loyalty, and disillusionment. A synopsis of the play follows:

Characters: Rick Helmsley. Neil Ashton, Rick's friend. Mitch, Jerry, and Pete, students. Lori Scott, Neil’s fiancée.

The play takes place in Neil's apartment. Mitch, Jerry, and Pete enter and a barrage of good-natured banter takes place. As it is the eve of Neil's marriage to Lori, he is the butt of many sexually oriented jokes. The purpose of their visit is to let Neil know that he should be on stand-by for a bachelor party to take place later in the course of the evening. At this point, Rick, Neil's friend since childhood, arrives unexpectedly. Rick is in the midst of a private dilemma. He is trying to decide between pleasing his father and his girlfriend by going back to college or continuing a budding career as a mechanic. Little does he know that his girlfriend and Neil's fiancée are one and the same. When Rick decides to sacrifice his goals to please his father and girlfriend, he is crushed to find that neither his father nor Lori is worthy of the sacrifice.

Through the course of the evening, Rick will be made aware of this and other unpleasant facts about himself and the people to whom he is closest. Later on, when Neil leans on Rick for reassurance and support, initially, Rick will shield Neil from the hard edge of truth, only to totally expose him to the cruel realities of the situation. Faced with the dilemma of telling Neil about Lori and risking the loss of his friendship, or letting Neil be all the more hurt by allowing him to marry someone who does not love him at all, he tells Neil all about Lori. He does this knowing it will cost him his friendship to Neil--knowing that Neil is his last connection--his last friend.

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