LES BID, FAB Join Trasport Group To Promote Local Business During BEING AUDREY

In keeping with the East Meets East Initiative, the Lower East Side Business Improvement District (LES BID) and Fourth Arts Block (FAB) partnered with Transport Group Theatre Company, winner of a special 2007 Drama Desk Award and a 2007 Obie Award, to promote local business during the company's world premiere production of the Off-Broadway musical, Being Audrey. The East Meets East Initiative was developed by the LES BID and FAB to leverage culture and commerce while fostering patronage of small business and theatre in the two neighborhoods.

As part of this effort to drive traffic to the Lower East Side and East Village neighborhoods, LES and FAB are connecting with local businesses to encourage theatre patrons to explore the area's wide variety of shopping, dining, and cultural opportunities during the current production. Joint promotions include window card displays, customer discounts, or ticket coupons in exchange for email blasts, website listings, or lobby displays.

This partnership will help drive traffic from the theatre to local business and vice versa. To date, the Transport Group and the LES BID have created joint promotions with many area businesses and plan to continue building more promotional partnerships that will carry over from one production to the next.

Transport Group performs at the Connelly Theatre, 220 E. 4th Street between Avenues A & B.

Being Audrey, a world premiere musical with music and lyrics by Ellen Weiss; book by James Hindman; additional book and lyrics by Cheryl Stern; developed with Jack Cummings III and Adam R. Perlman; musical direction, arrangements, and orchestrations by Lanny Meyers; musical staging and choreography by Scott Rink; and directed by Jack Cummings III, runs thru April 26, 2009. The play runs Thursday and Friday at 8pm; Saturday at 2pm and 8pm; Sunday at 3pm, and Monday at 7pm through April 26 at 220 East 4 Street, between Avenues A & B (6 to Astor Place, W/N to 8th Street or F/V to Second Avenue). Tickets, which are $38 - $45, are available at www.transportgroup.org or by phoning (212) 564-0333 or TheaterMania at (212) 352-3101. For more information about Transport Group, visit www.transportgroup.org. Get the behind-the-scenes story on the creation of Being Audrey at www.beingaudrey.blogspot.com.

About the Lower East Side Business Improvement District: The Lower East Side Business Improvement District was established in 1992 as a nonprofit economic development organization dedicated to revitalizing the Orchard Street Shopping District while preserving its unique and diverse character.

About Transport Group: Founded in 2001, Transport Group, under the leadership of Jack Cummings III, Artistic Director, and Lori Fineman, Executive Director, is a not-for-profit theatre company that develops and produces work by American playwrights and composers with the aim of exploring the American consciousness in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Fourth Arts Block (FAB) is the leadership organization for the East 4th Street Cultural District, creating a vibrant, lasting home for the arts in the heart of the East Village. Every year, more than 200,000 people come to East 4th Street to see a new play, enjoy a reading, catch a film, and take a dance class. FAB serves as an advocate for the cultural district, spearheading centralized projects, marketing the block as a cultural destination, supporting artists' growth and capacity, and leading sustainable development.

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