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Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, has launched a major London theatre promotion with the aim of broadening the range of theatre audiences.
Only a third of the annual 12 million visits to West End theatres are made by audiences living in the London boroughs, and the initiative, which involves more than 70 different productions, aims to increase this proportion.

The Mayor?s London Development Agency (LDA) is contributing £350,000 to the ?Get Into London Theatre? promotion, which has been created in partnership with the Society of London Theatre. London?s theatre?s are expected to match this funding thorough ticket discounting. The promotion offers thousands of tickets to plays, musicals, dance and opera at reduced prices of £10, £15 and £20, and £5 tickets will be available at specific performances for under-25s and over-60s. West End shows are taking part, as well as venues outside including the Hackney Empire and the Tricycle in Kilburn.

Another Mayoral initiative is also set to create opportunities for cultural events in the heart of London. Trafalgar Square is being transformed into a large open piazza with a grand central staircase linking the National Gallery to the Square via a new pedestrian area. A series of cultural events has taken place in the Square during the past two years, and this programme is set to be extended and event organisers commissioned to animate the Square throughout the year.

Past events on the Square have included film screenings sponsored by Samsung, as well as community festivals like St Patrick?s Day or Chinese New Year, and negotiations are currently in progress to mount everything from classical concerts to art installations and urban skating days. Organisations interested in sponsoring the Trafalgar Square events programme or mounting their own cultural events should contact Martin Green, Senior Events Officer t: 020 7983 6521.