When Phoebe Rusch, 17, submitted her play "3/4 of a Mass for St. Vivian" for consideration in the VSA Playwright Discovery Award last year, she probably never dreamed that she would be selected as a top winner or that she'd find herself in Washington DC this summer ... overseeing the production of her play at the venerable Kennedy Center.

All things are possible, especially if you have talent on your side.

A soon-to-be senior at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, Phoebe's play is based upon the stories her mother told her about her youth and friendships. It is a true story about "two wildly different and tenacious young women fighting to answer the most infinite of life's questions: How do you explain why we love? Why we die? Why we need to believe? Set against the backdrop of the tumultuous early 1970's, their philosophies unite and collide as they develop a lifelong friendship."

Critics and audiences are saying "wow." In an article published in last week's Washington Post, Phoebe's director, Paul-Douglas Michnewicz, was quoted as saying "I should say that I think Phoebe will be one of the great playwrights of the next generation."

And, a review in today's Post calls "3/4 of a Mass" a "fully realized new work."

If you're in Washington DC, try to check out the production at Theater Alliance at the H Street Playhouse 866-811-4111 Through Sept. 3