Folkloric Characters Portrayed and Recognized at Ogre Awards
The 2010 Ogre Awards took place March 25 at Bucknall Theater before a lively lunch-time crowd. A vignette from “Cinderella” started the show. In a change from past years, the awards did not present a story from start to finish by integrating the Ogre nominees into the tale’s plot. Instead, the Gr. 2 students acted out scenes from each of the 21 nominated stories.
Gr. 2 homeroom teachers co-hosted the event with Enid Davis, library director. As is customary, awards were given out to various characters featured in the show. This year’s Best Witch was Baba Yaga, the infamous hag from Russian folklore, portrayed by Simren Gupta. Best Wolf went to the Grey Wolf from “Czar Ivan and Grey Wolf,” played by Montek Kalsi. The title character from the Scottish fairy tale “Molly Whuppie,” played by Radhika Jain, won Best Heroine.
Best Magical Object was won by January’s staff from the story “Marusa and the Month Family,” while the Youngest Brother from “The Waters of Life,” played by Gabriel Chai, won Best Enchanted Creature. The titular character from “Lazy Jack,” portrayed by Devin Keller, was this year’s Best Fool, and the year’s Best Trickster was Anansi from “Anansi and Five,” depicted by Benjamin MacDonald. Finally, the 2010 Ogre Award for Favorite Story went to “Lazy Jack,” which was performed by students Keller, Andrew Cheplyansky, Matthew Jiang and Vance Vu.
This year’s Special Ogre Award went to Marie Clifford, who – along with Chris Nikoloff – spearheaded the drive for a new upper school library. Clifford was business manager for Harker schools for more than 20 years and is now a member of the board of trustees.