MTV visits high school in search of cast

    Washington High School students may be featured on MTV next year. The casting producer for the MTV show ?Made? visited the high school Tuesday and addressed the entire student body during an assembly in the auditorium. The casting producer, Nathan Johnson, told the crowd that he?s looking for students who want to be on the show. Johnson answered questions about the show and promised to return to the high school Jan. 26 when the students will audition.

    Johnson explained that the show is about finding kids who have big dreams and helping them achieve those dreams. For instance, he finds kids who want to be singers, actors, dancers and athletes. MTV finds a coach to help the kid improve their skills in that area. A camera crew follows the kid around, filming (nearly) everything they do, from going to class to eating dinner to getting out of bed.

    The first question that Johnson was asked at the assembly was, ?Why Washington?? Johnson said that he goes to towns big and small across the nation.

    ?I like small towns where the kids are excited about changing and growing,? he said. ?They don?t necessarily have the same opportunities as kids from New York or Los Angeles.?

    Johnson said the dreams of Iowa youngsters are not very different from the kids he meets on the coasts.

    ?It?s so interesting to see the parallel from one high school kid to another,? he said.

    Johnson spends seven months out of the year traveling from one high school to another.

    ?I try to go to two high schools per day,? he said. ?Here in Iowa, I?m only going to one school per day, because they?re too spaced out. Everything is two hours away.?

    In an interview after the assembly, Johnson said he was impressed with the questions and level of interest from the audience.

    ?They asked very good questions and they sounded genuinely interested in the show,? he said.

    A few students told Johnson they were interested in writing and a few others expressed an interest in photography. Johnson said those are activities that have not yet been featured on Made.   

    Made has been on MTV for eight years and is in its 11th season. It has ?made? kids into homecoming kings and queens, cheerleaders, snowboarders, rappers and martial artists. Johnson said that some pursuits are more interesting to viewers than other pursuits. 

    ?Singing is one of them,? he said. ?That is a very popular one. We have rock singers all the time.?

    Someone in the audience asked Johnson if Made could teach a person to sing even if she were a terrible singer.

    Johnson replied, ?We could probably make her into a singer.?

Athletics is another field commonly showcased.

For the full story, see the Jan. 19 edition of The Washington Evening Journal