400 S. Conkling Street
Baltimore, MD 21224
First-come, first-serve street parking is available. Payment is made either by coins or by card.
One block away, on Eastern and Conking, MTA buses for the CityLink Navy line, the CityLink Blue line, and the 22 lines are easily accessible.
All ride-sharing apps can easily approach The Highwire Center. If possible, input the Center’s address into your app: 400 South Conkling Street, 21224.
The Highwire Center is an indoor venue located on the first floor and has an ADA-accessible entrance on the far side of the building, along Bank Street.
Ramp access can be made available upon request.
One of the two bathrooms is fully ADA-accessible.
There are some amazing restaurants and bars, just a few blocks in any direction from the Highwire Center. Here are some great sit-down places to grab dinner, as recommended by the Highwire Improv community:
0.1 miles away
2 minute walk
Eclectic American fare with a great wine and beer list and plenty of NA options.
0.2 miles away
4 minute walk
A sausage-centric menu with a laid back vibe and microbrews and craft cocktails.
We are located at 400 S. Conkling Street, at the corner of Conkling and Bank in Highlandtown.
We have divided the space into two main areas – the Lounge and the Showroom. The Lounge is the front-of-house area that looks out onto the corner of S. Conkling and Bank. This will serve as a gathering space on show nights and a classroom/community meeting space the rest of the week. The back of the space is the Showroom, where we will have shows (of course) as well as classes and practices. They are connected by a hallway and also separated by two bathrooms, one of them ADA accessible.
It’s about 14 feet wide by 9 feet long. Think of the space at The Lou Room, but raised 6 inches off the ground. The stage left side does have a door to Bank Street that will serve as our accessible entrance.
Of course! In fact, we bought six special bentwood-style chairs in Highwire colors that we love so much. Please be gentle with them. (Click the image to see them.)
We will set up 30 and 42 seats with the potential for some very minimal standing room if needed.
You are expected to be at The Highwire Center 30 minutes before your block of shows. So if you are in the 8 p.m. block, please arrive by 7:30 even if you are in the second half of the hour.
We will not have a Green Room, per se. The Green Room is in the small office and tech booth at the end of the hallway. However, the space is small and will only be available to teams just before you go on stage to start. We don’t want to crowd the person working tech and also want to limit sound bleeding from the room into the theater.
However, this space provides somewhere for you to keep your personal belongings and has a coffee maker, tea kettle, soft drinks, snacks and many other amenities for performers.
Some teams have warmed up outside. Once we install a curtain in the hallway to dampen sound, teams may warm up in the Lounge once we figure out the sound bleed situation.
Teams will enter from the back of the Showroom and go down the center aisle of seats to the stage. We will work with hosts to limit traffic jams as you enter the stage. Or the tech may just introduce you to streamline the process. Either way, we want to make this a special part of the experience and will use the tech we have available to make it happen.
There is a red light at the back of the Showroom, near the ceiling. The tech will black out your set unless you request to call your own set.
You can leave the way you came in and head to the Lounge. If you are the first show of the night, you can go hang out there, but we again ask you to be mindful of your volume out of respect for the second team. Because the rest of the building will hold apartments, we want to avoid loud groups gathering outside of the space. If you are the second team or the only show for the hour, we would love if you would hang out in the Lounge to thank people for coming, etc. We hope the first team would do that after the full hour as well. These kind of logistics will become more clear as the weeks go by, especially when we are transitioning between hours.
We have basic lights and sound, but will have a projector and maybe some screens available in The Showroom. We will expand the tech available organically as we add special touches to the whole space.
Unfortunately, not alcoholic ones. We do not have a liquor license and do not qualify as a BYOB facility under City laws. Please help us avoid any problems or awkward situations by getting drinks at one of the many great businesses in Highlandtown before or after shows. We want everyone to support our neighbors and will have resources available for everyone to know where they can go. Will will also have NA drinks, soft drinks and snacks available.
We are still developing plans for any sort of performer pass or comp ticket policy. We won’t know for sure until once we gauge the demand for tickets. Because ticket sales help fund performer payments, this is something we will take our time to decide.
There is street parking available in the neighborhood. For any areas that require paid parking, you will not need to pay for parking after 6 p.m.
You are helping just by being part of our community, but here are a few specific ways you can lend a hand: