Beverly teens hope to be 'Made'

School hosts MTV's casting call for dream-maker show

Among the teenagers to answer the MTV casting call at Beverly High were students Katie Carlotto (left), Zac Currier, and Megan Condon.

Nonconformity.

It hangs around Zac Currier's neck - an aboriginal-style hemp necklace intertwined with his four extracted wisdom teeth.

It's emblazoned on his belt buckle - a blue LED rectangle that scrolls messages like the tickers on Wall Street.

And it's certainly evident in his ambition - master paintball player.

The 17-year-old with wavy, blond hair wearing blue Converse sneakers talks about his dream in precise and poetic terms. "[My teammate] will tug his earlobe and we'll barrel out and" - he sticks his pointer fingers out like pistols - "brr-rr-rr-rr, take out the other team in a rainbow of color."

A crowd arrived with big - and sometimes unusual - aspirations at Beverly High School on April 1, ready to plead their case at an open casting call for the dream-maker MTV show "Made."

In the press of roughly 30 Beverly High students there were wannabe ninjas, aspiring break dancers, would-be singers, striving tennis players - and, like Currier, aspiring paintball warriors.

Far-fetched, some of them, others admittedly silly, but dreams nonetheless.

"If you have a chance to pursue your dream, you should take it," said the 5-foot-tall, roughly-90-pound waif, Mirabella Pulido. (Aspiration: break dancer.)

"It gives you a chance to answer one of those 'what if?' questions," said her friend, 15-year-old Stefany Hirschfeld. (Goal: tennis ace.)

"Made," a popular and long-running show, is designed to literally transform teenagers and 20-somethings, and also give them a shot at reality-TV fame. In past episodes, trainers have turned girly ballerinas into boxers, choirboys into pro wrestlers, and "Star Trek" nerds into gangsta rappers.

A subject spends roughly a month with an expert, called a Made coach, honing his or her chosen skill. An hourlong episode, complete with self-deprecating voice-overs and interviews with friends and family members, then chronicles the odyssey.

Sometimes they achieve their dream, other times they don't. But, in either case, the goal is that he or she comes away a new person.

To audition, aspirants must be between the ages of 15 and 21; they also have to fill out a three-page form about their weight, height, hobbies, and to what social clique they belong. Goals must be attainable within four to five months, according to the questionnaire. "If your goal takes years and years of training," it states, "we can't help you out this time, sorry!"

Tamika Young, a publicist with MTV in New York, explained that the show does casting calls several times a year, usually at randomly chosen high schools. Generally, one student is picked from each location, she said.

At Beverly High's auditions, students lined up in a brick-walled hallway. They then filed one-by-one into a small room to state their cases before a casting director and a camera. (The agent, a brunette woman in a short skirt, long brown jacket, and clicky heels, later said she wasn't at liberty to speak with the press.)

As they waited, the teenagers murmured excitedly. Melodies from practicing saxophonists in the nearby music room drifted through the halls.

After her few minutes in the room, 16-year-old Katie Carlotto emerged, hand to heart, laughing nervously. "I was like, 'What do I want to be again?' " she joked, hair striped brunette and blond, a silver ring bobbing up and down in her lip.

And that is? A ninja.

"It's about more than fighting; it's about becoming a better person," she said, noting that she has the speed and agility required to learn the craft.

Also, it would be confidence-boosting, making her "feel taller on the inside."

But she wasn't the only one: Wynnie Clark, 16, also hopes to ascend to ninja status.

A practicing Taoist, she has longed to learn the art, she said.

And it is an art form, she said, not a violent spectacle.

"It's great to get the opportunity to reach a goal like this," said the tall, quiet teenager who characterized herself as a voracious reader.

And if she isn't "Made?" "I'll [become a ninja] someday."

High school officials had announced the casting call several weeks beforehand. Since then, it had buzzed through school hallways, with students discussing dreams of snowboarding, rapping, and skateboarding - or, more quirkily, raking leaves for nuns.

Pulido acknowledged the slight absurdity in her own aspiration of break dancing. "I'm the quiet girl who focuses on my education," noted the 14-year-old as she grinned through green-capped braces and clutched a pink cellphone. "No one would expect it from me."

Currier, meanwhile, true to form, wanted to go as stratospheric as possible.

"My main reason is it'll make me into more of a man," the beat-boxer and tuba player said of paintball just before entering the audition room. "And I'm talking a real manly man."

A few minutes later, he reappeared, clearly disheartened. The casting director didn't seem impressed with his idea, he said.

So he settled on learning to play golf. "I'm good at [Nintendo] Wii golf," he explained of his decision.

Last up was Kelsey Walsh, a shy and quiet 15-year-old who wants to become a powerhouse siren like "American Idol" valedictorian Kelly Clarkson.

"I rambled," the ponytailed freshman said, face flushed, after her audition. She took a deep breath. "I'm still trying to get over my nervous shock."

She has longed to become a singer since age 7, she said, but people either haven't taken her seriously - or worse - have told her she's no good.

"It's a really small chance," she said of "Made," and then added with a shrug, "but it's a chance worth taking."