Bringing toys to life

Margaret McNamara ’13, left, and Alexis Branagan ’11 performed in the premiere of the dance piece “The Toy Box,” based on Claude Debussy’s 1913 homage to childhood as a magical, creative age, at McCarter Theatre Center’s Berlind Theatre April 8–10. The piece, in which a boy and girl encounter toys that come to life, was directed and choreographed by Rebecca Lazier, senior lecturer in dance; set to music by conductor Anthony D.J. Branker ’80, head of Princeton’s jazz program; and performed by student dancers and musicians. Debussy’s music for “The Toy Box” was left partially unorchestrated at the time of his death in 1918, but music professor Simon Morrison *97 discovered an unknown version of the score that includes a “jazz overture” at the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art.