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The American Theatre Critics Association named E.M. Lewis' Song of Extinction as the recipient of the 2009 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, which honors plays that debut at regional theaters outside New York City, on Saturday, April 4 at the Humana Festival in Louisville, Kentucky. Lewis will receive a plaque and a cash prize of $25,000.

The play, which had its world premiere last November at Moving Arts in Hollywood, concerns a musically gifted high school student and his biology teacher, and deals with themes including ecology, genocide, isolation, music, and family relationships.

In addition, Lee Blessing's Great Falls and Tracy Letts' Superior Donuts, which were also nominated, received Steinberg/ATCA citations and $7,500 each.

Winners were chosen by a committee of 13 theater critics, led by chairman Wm. F. Hirschman, and also including Misha Berson, Bruce Burgun, Michael Elkin, Jay Handelman, Pam Harbaugh, Leonard Jacobs, Chad Jones, Elizabeth Keill, Elizabeth Maupin, Wendy Parker, Michael Sander, and Herb Simpson.

For more information, visit www.americantheatrecritics.org.