Heap Troupe (Kara Beadle)
Photo credit: Summer Hanson
Heap Troupe is a Seattle-based interdisciplinary performance troupe that has been creating site-specific interactive performances since 2019. Heap uses play and experimental theatrics to celebrate joy in abundance, while critiquing overconsumption.
Inside the fantasy worlds they build, Heap queers reductive ideas on bodily autonomy by drawing parallels between humans and objects; bicycles, ladders, oranges, etc.
This collaborative project is directed by movement artist Kara Beadle, in collaboration with performer and handyman Andy Zacek, and several rotating artists. Kara’s choreographic process uses character building tools from role-playing games and structured improvisation, gearing their aesthetic to be easily approachable to non-dancers, using humor and props to stimulate empathy. Andy uses parts, hardware, trash and junk to create the sets and costuming to further develop the fantasy worlds that these characters inhabit. Leah Crosby has collaborated with Heap since 2024, they use text, sound, movement, and objects to tell stories about care and human connection.
Heap is currently an artist in residence at Freeway Park, and has performed in On The Boards Spectacle Spectacular, Next Fest Northwest: Rupture/Reverence, Texas Dance Improvisation Festival, Co’s Show 5, Space Station Dance Residency in St Lewis, the Walk Don’t Run Art Marathon, Georgetown’s Art Attack, The Shed’s Freeform Residency Showing, The Flight Deck Residency Showing, 18th and Union’s Portable Performance Festival, Velocity Dance Center’s Fall Kick-off: Portals, Launch, TakePause, and The Seattle International Dance Festival.
In November 2024 Heap produced their own show Automorphs, in partnership with Cascade Bicycle Club, a non-profit bicycle advocacy group. The piece was toured at Estrogenius festival in NYC in May 2025.
Kara was awarded a 2025-2026 City Artist Grant for the creation of Heapride: Behind the Handlebars, a mobile bike-based performance inviting audiences to ride bicycles and witness performances on Seattle streets from behind the handlebars which premiered May 2026.
