Q&A with Logan Stacer

Logan Myles Stacer, a 2014 graduate from Piper High School in Kansas, shares his insights and experiences as a former speech and debate competitor and current arts community leader.

You did forensics in high school and were offered a scholarship for it by Kansas State University. How much did that influence your decision to continue your education to get your master’s in Arts Politics at New York University?

After graduating Kansas State with a pretty successful speech career, I had a sense that my talent would translate outside of the speech circuit, and I wanted to go to NYU because I felt like Tisch was the best Art school in the world. However, I knew I wasn’t a good enough actor to get into the acting MFA or a good enough writer to get into the dramatic writing MFA, luckily, my speech and debate experience translated perfectly to Arts Politics. So at NYU I was able to grow as an academic while taking acting and writing electives within Tisch.

What advice would you give someone who just graduated high school and is moving into competing in speech and debate at the collegiate level?

Go to Kansas State.?Kidding (kind of).?

College speech is very intense. You’re traveling around the country almost every weekend. You’re preparing and developing as many as six events at a time, more if you compete at NFA. You’re making friends with people who don’t live anywhere close to you. And if you can manage to do that, while also getting good grades, maintaining healthy habits, and checking in with your family every once in a while, by the time you graduate college your brain’s executive functioning ought to be on par with the U.S. President. All of this is to say, college speech can be very all-consuming, but you can create boundaries and still be very successful.?

As the founder and executive artistic director of Heartland Arts KC, a nonprofit that uses performing arts to teach the public about social issues in Kansas City. Can you share more about your journey to starting this organization?

Circling back to the MA vs MFA idea in the first question, after graduating NYU I wasn’t content with the practical application of what I had learned. So Heartland Arts KC started almost with the question of like, what would an MFA in Arts Politics look like?

Outside of NYU, I was in the 4th cohort of the #BARS theatre in verse workshop at The New York Public Theatre, I was taking sketch writing classes at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade, I was a regularly winning poetry slams at the Nuyorican Poets cafe, I worked as an assistant for Anna Deavere Smith’s one-person show class, and I got to work at Columbia Law School with the Broadway Advocacy Coalition during their Theatre of Change J-Term class. So I really treated being in New York like taking six events to nationals and I was growing in all these different areas of writing and performing. Eventually I reached a point where I realized New York already has all these things, but Kansas City NEEDS them.?

So through Heartland Arts KC my mission was to share my mastery of both craft and community engagement with artists in my hometown in an effort to build a similar thriving creative ecosystem that I was a part of in New York.

What tips do you have for alumni who are interested in starting a non-profit?

Treat it like DUO and don’t do it alone.?

Nonprofits have three main areas: programming, fundraising, and administration. I think any single person could probably execute two of those at a high level, but managing all three is very difficult.?

So practically, I would say start a nonprofit with someone whose strengths compliment your weaknesses.?

Theoretically, non-profit work is very rewarding. It’s still entrepreneurial. It’s still hard work. And it absolutely helps to have mentorship throughout the process.

What part of your speech & debate experience do you reflect on most?

I mostly reflect on the coaches that I was fortunate enough to have along the way. By the time I graduated I realized there are people who do speech and there are speech artists. And what cultivates that in a competitor is good coaching.

Some coaches do the heavy lifting- finding pieces, cutting, blocking- and the competitor just has to show up in the room and execute. Many of these people are quite successful but I don’t think it’s as fulfilling of an experience.

I was lucky enough to have coaches who let me experiment, fail, and lose a lot of rounds until I was able to innovate and make the activity my own. I was lucky enough to have coaches who would let me try my weird ideas and make them the best versions of themselves instead of prescribing me my career.?

In the end, that’s why I am in the position I’m in today. I figured out my point of view, my style, my work habits, and everything I needed to figure out to be successful in speech and the same skills translate into “the real world.”

Is there anything else you would like to share about yourself or your speech and debate experience?

Absolutely have to include this– The state of Kansas has an event called improvised duet acting. I don’t know if every state has it yet, but that event started my love for the whole activity. The girl I did IDA with in my sophomore year of high school is now my wife. “Yes, and” is a great foundation for marriage.

Where can people connect with you?

These days, Instagram @LoganStacer and @HeartlandArtsKC and LinkedIn.