Staircase Improv

Founding (1996)

Hugh MacLeod and Kathy Garneau moved from Vancouver to Hamilton in 1994, having both worked in the improv scene at the Vancouver TheatreSports League. Finding no improv community in Hamilton, they began building one. In 1996 MacLeod and Garneau established Staircase Improv, taking their name from the cast iron spiral staircase inside the building they had purchased and renovated for the purpose: Dundurn Station, a former 1914 beaux-arts power substation operated by Hamilton Hydro and decommissioned in 1996.

Venue and Community

The renovation of Dundurn Station required MacLeod to navigate city zoning challenges, rallying improv contacts from across Canada to advocate to Hamilton city councillors. MacLeod's mother provided seed funding for renovations, and a performance room in the building was named the Elaine May Theatre in her honour. The venue was built small by design: 67 seats, with the audience elevated above the performers. Staircase Improv has been entirely self-funded through workshop fees and ticket revenue since its founding, accepting no government, corporate, or religious funding.

Programming

Staircase Improv runs classes, workshops, stand-up, sketch comedy, improv jams, and regular comedy shows. The venue also hosts the Hamilton Fringe Festival and serves as an arts incubator for a range of Hamilton organizations.

Staircase Improv is Hamilton's long-running community improv company and arts venue, operating from a repurposed 1914 power substation and sustaining itself entirely through ticket and workshop revenue since 1996.

Monday Basics offers a weekly drop-in entry point to improv comedy in a class-performance hybrid format. Wednesday Notes pairs improvised scenes with direct instructor feedback for developing performers. One Joke Minimum, held on the first Tuesday of each month, is a stand-up writing workshop. Improv Comedy Singing applies musical improvisation techniques with professional instruction. The Elaine May Theatre and the adjacent Bright Room both host ongoing performance programs. Staircase Improv has also developed and published a free, open-source online improv curriculum at learnimprov.com, which began in 1994 and functions as a living document cataloguing structures and formats invented by the company.

Staircase Improv was founded in 1996 by Hugh MacLeod and Kathy Garneau after MacLeod relocated from Vancouver, where he had performed with Vancouver Theatresports League, to a city with no improv comedy scene. The founding required overcoming active resistance from Hamilton city officials on zoning grounds; MacLeod drew on improv contacts across Canada to email councillors in support of the project. Seed money for renovations came from MacLeod's mother, Elaine May MacLeod, whose name the company's main performance space now bears. The company has operated without government, corporate, or religious funding since its founding, sustaining itself entirely through workshop fees and ticket sales. The venue at 25 Dundurn Street North, a 1914 beaux-arts power substation, houses a deliberately small black box theatre, the Bright Room on the third floor, and a basement studio, all used for performance and training. Beyond improv, the Staircase became a broader arts incubator for Hamilton, hosting the Hamilton Fringe Festival, Hamilton Theatre Project, and LitLive Reading Series among others, and functioning for nearly three decades as a rare affordable space for artists operating outside institutional funding. MacLeod and Staircase Improv contributed directly to Canadian improv pedagogy through learnimprov.com, a curriculum resource that has been cited and used by improv practitioners internationally. Ownership of the building later transferred to a group of local business owners who committed to maintaining its arts-based function.