VIDEO: BEHIND THE LID Film Launches Kickstarter; Looks at Lee Nagrin and Basil Twist's 2007 Production

BEHIND THE LID, a film by Steve Lippman of the immersive 2007 theatrical production created by Lee Nagrin and Basil Twist, has just launched a Kickstarter campaign. Click below to watch the project pitch!

Behind The Lid, a theatrical experience created slowly over nine years by Lee Nagrin and world-renowned puppeteer Basil Twist, received its world premiere on June 3, 2007 at the Silver Whale Gallery in New York City to great critical acclaim. It ran for six weeks.

The intimate audience of 18 people per-performance took an expanded and revealing journey through a special hand-made world. Twist and four puppeteers performed alongside effigies and totems of Nagrin. Her longtime home and work space, Silver Whale Gallery at 21 Bleecker Street, was utterly transformed into in a site-specific and ambulatory experience, delving into Nagrin's personal history and that of the 20th century.

Lee died on June 7, 2007, just four days after the premiere, and her Silver Whale Gallery no longer exists.

The film of Behind the Lid is one of the remaining preservations of her work. It was shot directly after the close of the run, performed solely for the cameras over two days, before the sets, puppets and props were permanently struck. The phantom camera takes you through the performance experience as if you were the sole person seeing it, and also from the perspective of the puppet effigy of Lee. The film is both an elegy and a unique document of this sensory theatrical event.

To learn more about the film and the original production, visit the Kickstarter page here and watch the video!