Where the work begins.
The Hineni Circle Project began with a group of ten seniors in Green Valley, Arizona, gathering around a table to read plays aloud — and discovering that something extraordinary happened when they did.
Today the Circle is a body of plays, books, salons, and community arts programs created by playwright and ritual practitioner Laurie S. Sherman. It is intergenerational ritual theater: women's voices across four thousand years, gathered into a single conversation through monologue and song.
The work lives where theater and liturgy meet — in synagogues and schools, in living rooms and under the desert sky. It is made to be shared.
Two ways of carrying it forward.
The Hineni Circle brings together original writing, ritual theater, books, salons, performances, and community gatherings created by Laurie S. Sherman. The work is carried by two related but distinct organizations.
Hineni Circle LLC
Hineni Circle LLC is the creative and publishing home of the work, including Hineni Circle Press, books, plays, commissioned writing, workshops, and related creative services.
Hineni Project Inc.
Hineni Project Inc. is an Arizona 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports the public-facing mission: performances, salons, community programs, educational and cultural partnerships, access, and the development of new work.
The two organizations are related but distinct. Donors and grantmakers seeking tax-deductible giving work with Hineni Project Inc.
Laurie S. Sherman
Laurie S. Sherman is an author, playwright, poet, director, performer, ritualist, and multidisciplinary artist whose work moves among literature, theater, Jewish ritual, women's history, and the strange alchemy that occurs when words leave the page and enter a room full of people.
Her books, plays, ritual works, salons, and performances form the creative heart of the Hineni Circle. She is the daughter of Robert B. Sherman, the Academy Award–winning lyricist of Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and “It's a Small World.”
lauriessherman.com →Help bring new work into the room.
Tax-deductible gifts to Hineni Project Inc. support performances, salons, community programs, artistic development, access, and opportunities for people to encounter this work together.