VSA arts Playwright Discovery Evening at the Kennedy Center

September 8, 2005

Award-winning plays by young playwrights

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 8, 2005 – VSA arts 21st Annual Playwright Discovery Evening will be presented on Monday, September 26, 2005 at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Honorees include, Phoebe Rusch, 16, from Highland Park, Ill. and Allison Cameron Gray, 16, from Van Nuys, Calif.

The Playwright Discovery Award Program offers middle and high school students of all abilities an opportunity to examine, through the art of writing a one-act play, how disability affects a person’s life. Rusch and Gray were selected out of 173 entries to each receive a monetary award and a trip to Washington, D.C. to see their play performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The Playwright Discovery Selection Committee includes Tony Award-winning director, Jack Hofsiss; Tony Award-winning producer, Fred Zollo; playwright and television screenwriter, John Belluso and playwright, Janet Allard. Both productions are directed by Theatre Alliance founder, Paul-Douglas Michnewicz and designed by Helen Hayes Award-winning designers Tony Cisek, Dan Covey, and Mark Anduss.

The evening will feature the world premiere of “3/4 of a Mass for St. Vivian,” by winning playwright Phoebe Rusch. A story that explores the complexity of an unlikely friendship set in the 1970’s, it stars 2005 Helen Hayes Award nominee, Kathleen Coons and Duke Ellington graduate with New York Theater credits, Erica Chamblee. The evening is hosted by renowned local actors Suzanne Richard and Rob McQuay. The night will include excerpts from “Sideshow,” by Allison Cameron Gray. This story captures conversations between people with and without disabilities during a play’s intermission.

Phoebe Rusch is a junior at Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan, where she majors in creative writing. She won first place in Interlochen’s 2005 creative writing contest, four gold awards in the 2005 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, (two in nonfiction and two in playwriting), and second place in Northlight Theater’s 2004 young playwrights festival, where her play, Raisin and Nutella, was produced.

Allison Cameron Gray writing credits include an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times (July 2000) and an article on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in New Mobility magazine (May 2005). Her “Ask Alli” column appears in Kids on Wheels magazine and Web site.

VSA arts President, Soula Antoniou, congratulated the young playwrights on their talent to, “combine the power of an imagination with the written word and create a play that can change perceptions about people with disabilities.”

For complimentary tickets please visit www.vsarts.org/play. Curtain is at 7:30.

About VSA arts

VSA arts is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1974 by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith to create a society where people with disabilities learn through, participate in and enjoy the arts. Today as a leader in arts-based teaching and learning, VSA arts' programs support key national education goals: literacy and school readiness, teacher training, and parental involvement in education. A network of VSA arts’ affiliates—nationwide and in more than 60 countries--serve more than 5 million people. Visit our website at http://www.vsarts.org.

Media Contact

Marcia Rhodes, VSA arts, (202) 628-2800 ext. 3883
marciar@vsarts.org

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