Two New Directors At Lava Heights

Lava Heights Academy is very happy to have added two new Directors to our team. Brant Wadsworth is our new Program Director and Jamie Young is our new Artistic Director. These additions will enhance our Expressive Art therapies approach. Nathan Meng's is moving strictly into our Clinical Director position and want to thank him publicly for the service and time he has put in during our first year.

Brant Wadsworth - Bio
Brant Wadsworth is a registered drama therapist with the North American Drama Therapy Association and is currently completing a Ph.D. in Expressive Arts Therapies at Lesley University. He holds a Master's degree in Theatre with a concentration in Drama Therapy. Brant has taught university theatre courses at both Kansas State University and Brigham Young University - Idaho, teaching courses in acting, improvisational theatre, film, special topics, and introductory theatre. He has also given several workshops at universities and conferences. With a background in movement for theatre, Brant has collaborated with dancers and other artists in various settings to create, choreograph and direct both theatre and dance productions. He has participated in over fifty-five productions as an actor or director at the university and semi-professional level, and was the founder and artistic director of two improvisational theatre troupes.

His work with the arts in therapy includes experience as an expressive therapist and clinician in adolescent residential treatment, therapeutic secondary education, and creative arts programs for developmentally and/or physically disabled children, teens, and adults. Brant is also a certified master trainer in the Alba EmotingTM method which uses specific physiological patterns of breath, facial expression, and body/postural orientation to induce, regulate, and cease genuine emotional experience. His current applications and research of this method explore one's emotional life and habits and engaging the body as a means of discovering greater emotional awareness and balance.

Originally from Idaho, Brant has lived in the eastern, mid-western, and western United States. Brant loves athletics and engaging in play. He and his wife Jennifer, who is a dance professor and choreographer, have two highly active sons and are very involved in their church. They believe strongly that the arts can be used to improve individuals, families, and communities.

Jamie Young's Bio
Professional Background
Before becoming the Artistic Director at Lava Heights Academy in 2013, Jamie Young was a professor of musical theatre for 19 years working at the University of Idaho, College of The Albemarle, and Western Wyoming College. For 12 years he was the head of the Theatre & Dance department at Western and was able to grow the program from 2 faculty and 18 students to more than 10 faculty/staff and 70 students. During his career as a professor, he taught college students singing, dancing, acting, and musical theatre performance techniques. During this time he also directed, choreographed, wrote, performed in, and/or produced more than 100 theatrical productions. New York City, Branson, and London are all very family to Jamie and he has conducted nearly 30 educational tours to these entertainment districts. Many of his students have returned to these cities for successful careers. Jamie has created and conducted 28 summer performing arts intensives for youth during his career. He believes that performing arts should be used to make the world a better place and give people an uplifting view of themselves that they would not have had otherwise.

Education
Master of Fine Arts (Terminal) in Theatre Arts: Acting and Directing - University of Idaho. 1994-1997.
Bachelor of Arts in Musical Theatre - Weber State University. 1991-1994.
Musical Theatre Major - Ricks College. 1987-88 & 1990-91.

Learning Philosophy
A safe emotional environment, hands-on opportunities, and active collaboration are Jamie's essential ingredients for learning.

For a safe emotional environment to exist, Jamie believes that trust must be established and comparing & competing with others must be done away with. Students and teachers must feel safe with one another for the greatest amount of learning to occur. Destructive or negative communication (verbal or nonverbal) could take away a person's desire to push themselves beyond their current abilities.

We learn best by doing, so Jamie feels strongly that performing and artistic training must include many opportunities for practical application. Jamie also believes that well-rounded and diverse opportunities will help students discover more about themselves. These kinds of hands-on opportunities accelerate a student's learning potential.

"By inviting creative input from each student, a sense of importance and belonging is established." Jamie continues, "With this kind of ownership in the artistic process a student will have a greater desire to strive for excellence. As excellence is attempted and achieved confidence and satisfaction occurs." Through this chain of active collaboration events Jamie believes a thirst for continued learning is established.

Performing Arts Philosophy
Jamie believes that as young children we all had the ability to sing, dance, and act - we called it playing make-believe. Jamie says, "As we grew up, we let the comments and actions of other people, or our perceptions of the expectations of society, take away our confidence and joy in playing and performing." Jamie's approach to teaching performance includes a dual & balanced emphasis in: 1) learning to play again with honesty & joy, and without fear & inhibition, and 2) learning to execute excellent singing, dancing, acting, and musical theatre technique & skill.

Treatment Philosophy
Jamie believes that many of the challenges that take away a growing child's ability to play, sing, dance, and act are the same obstacles that lead some teens into low self-esteem and its related destructive or debilitating behavior. Jamie has worked with more than a thousand teens who were able to regain their esteem and learn successful-life strategies through structured performing arts programs. He has witnessed time and time again the direct relationship between a teen's ability to adjust healthily and normally to the challenges in life and their ability to express themselves creatively and openly through the arts. He says, "As a youth's artistic and performing skills increase so does their self-esteem and ability to safely deal with the trials and difficulties of life."

Outside of Work
Jamie has been blessed with an amazing wife and five wonderful children (four daughters and one son). The oldest was born in 1992 and the youngest is 2003. They enjoy camping, hiking, and just about anything else in the outdoors. Jamie and his family are actively involved in their church. For fitness and fun, Jamie enjoys participating in triathlons.