{"id":16477,"date":"2020-03-29T06:55:13","date_gmt":"2020-03-29T06:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uked.com.au\/?post_type=project&p=16477"},"modified":"2020-04-23T04:12:47","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T04:12:47","slug":"uked-characters","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/backup.uked.com.au\/index.php\/project\/uked-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"Uked! characters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karla \u2013 our heroine<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Karla has just turned 50 and is looking for love, which is not easy as she keeps getting dumped – most recently by her violin-playing boyfriend, Brian.<\/p>\n

Her real name is Carlotta \u2013 \u201clike a lotta cars\u201d, but she prefers Karla – with a K – like a Kardashian.<\/p>\n

Karla is one of those people who\u2019s fallen through the cracks of life. She\u2019s never married, never had kids and never had a career.<\/p>\n

Between working at Pack n\u2019 Track with her friends Leonie and Julie, and caring for her aged Mum, she\u2019s struggling to find her place in a changing world.<\/p>\n

But our Karla is not a quitter. She\u2019s resourceful and creative and a little bit politically incorrect.<\/p>\n

Whenever she needs to express herself, she writes a rhyme \u2013 and plays he ukulele.<\/p>\n

Karla\u2019s YouTube ukulele teachers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Karla\u2019s teachers are all fictional affectionate parodies of the many ukulele teachers on YouTube.<\/p>\n

All are male, except six-year-old Gloria Stardust, who may be played by an adult of any gender.<\/p>\n

This gender imbalance is because Karla is very focused on finding a man and is looking for a male figure in her life – and because we used the same male actor for all these roles.<\/p>\n

But if your uke group is mostly women, they can play the men, or you can mix up the genders. Anything for a laugh.<\/p>\n

In order of appearance, Karla’s YouTube teachers are:<\/p>\n

Spruikin’\u00a0Uken Luke<\/strong> is Karla’s first YouTube teacher. He’s North American, fatherly and teaches her the names of the strings.<\/p>\n

Bret McLean<\/strong> is young and handsome and as ocker as you get, and Karla is entranced – until he suggests she learn Frere Jacques.<\/p>\n

Tiny Tom<\/strong> is obsessed with his namesake ukulele-playingTiny Tim and all the other great artists of the past. He helps Karla learn her first song.<\/p>\n

Gloria Stardust<\/strong> is a six-year-old lisping prodigy who teaches ukulele on her very own channel.<\/p>\n

Uncle Scraggy<\/strong> is a wise-old codger from the American South who seems to always know what lesson Karla needs to learn next.<\/p>\n

Pierre Vert<\/strong> is a snooty Frenchman who gives Karla just the ammunition she needs when her friend Julie teases her about the ukulele being “a toy.<\/p>\n

Baba Bill<\/strong> is a canny Scotsman who runs Ukulele Nirvana and preaches peace and love, assuring Karla that it’s so easy to fall in love.<\/p>\n

The NUTS and GRUBS<\/a> leaders<\/strong><\/p>\n

Karla finally gets some real-life teachers when she joins a the fictional ukulele groups the NUTS (Newstead Ukulele Troupe) and the GRUBS (Guildford Regional Ukulele Band).<\/p>\n

Jeremy<\/strong> is the NUTS Leader, along with his partner, Joel. He’s warm and friendly, which is why Karla is convinced he likes her.<\/p>\n

Joel<\/strong> is the NUTS is the love of Jeremy’s life, much to Karla’s disappointment and envy. Why is everyone getting married except her?<\/p>\n

Ruth<\/strong> is the GRUBS Leader. Like her fellow GRUBS, she’s been around the Monopoly board a few times and is little cynical\u00a0about love.<\/p>\n

Wade \u2013 the man of her dreams?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wade is a widower and a passionate ukulele player. His second wife, Lydia was American. She died of ovarian cancer two years earlier and Wade is still grieving.<\/p>\n

Karla meets him on the dating site Romance-R-US and is immediately impressed because he plays the ukulele AND has his own channel \u2013 WhatWadePlayed.<\/p>\n

When he meets Karla, he\u2019s in Sacramento, LA, helping Lydia\u2019s Mum with some legal issues.<\/p>\n

Wade understands what Karla is going through with her Mum, and her passion for the ukulele.<\/p>\n

What could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n

Maestro \u2013 the man who \u201cgets\u201d her<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maestro mysteriously turns up at the GRUBS meeting, replacing Ruth, who is on tour with Brittni Paiva, the world famous Hawaiian ukulele player who plays all that jazzy stuff.<\/p>\n

A cross between Clint Eastwood and Antonia Banderas, he is mature, romantic, and passionate. He insists that Karla should not play the ukulele \u2013 she should make love to it.<\/p>\n

Through Maestro, Karla discovers that her rhymes are really lyrics and her true talent is writing songs.<\/p>\n

Mum \u2013 meant to be \u2013that\u2019s Mum\u2019s philosophy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mum is a chain-smoking fatalist. If something happens it\u2019s \u201cmeant to be\u201d and if it doesn\u2019t it\u2019s \u201cnot meant to be\u201d.<\/p>\n

While Mum never appears in the play, she is a big part of Karla\u2019s life. Karla has no siblings and her father is dead or absent, so it\u2019s just Mum and Karla.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t live together, but they talk every day.<\/p>\n

Like all mothers, she worries \u2013 especially that one of those guys on that dating site will be a serial killer.\u00a0 But she knows that one day Karla will find where she belongs.<\/p>\n

Brian \u2013 the bastard who dumps her<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brian is the first violin in the West Bendigo Chamber Orchestra and has just dumped Karla for Kylie, the cellist.<\/p>\n

Eventually, we meet him \u2013 when he\u2019s been dumped by Kylie and is desperate to join a uke club\u00a0 (\u201cThere are no clubs for violin-players\u201d)<\/p>\n

Brian can appear on stage in person OR you can do what we did in the Guildford premiere and just have one of your actors behind a door voicing Brian, while Karla tries to keep him from coming in and joining the club.<\/p>\n

Either way, Brian is a bastard who gets his come-uppance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Karla \u2013 our heroine Karla has just turned 50 and is looking for love, which is not easy as she keeps getting dumped – most recently by her violin-playing boyfriend, Brian. Her real name is Carlotta \u2013 \u201clike a lotta cars\u201d, but she prefers Karla – with a K – like a Kardashian. Karla is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16481,"menu_order":3,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"pj-categs":[64],"pj-tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nUked! characters - UKED!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"All of the main characters from Uked.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/backup.uked.com.au\/index.php\/project\/uked-characters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Uked! characters - UKED!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"All of the main characters from Uked.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/backup.uked.com.au\/index.php\/project\/uked-characters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UKED!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-23T04:12:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/backup.uked.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Karla-Wade-480.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/backup.uked.com.au\/index.php\/project\/uked-characters\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/backup.uked.com.au\/index.php\/project\/uked-characters\/\",\"name\":\"Uked! 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