In Theatrics, the debut full length collection of writing by Maya Martinez, many stories take place. A pig and a lamb contend with dreams and mortality. A party girl confronts rapture in a parking lot. A man accused of vehicular manslaughter pleads to understand humility. A housewife suffers ego death and becomes a motivational speaker.

Aggregating influences like Molly Shannon, Cookie Mueller and Ryan Trecartin, Maya Martinez’s collection builds moments from language heard in restaurants, conversations with friends, and the rhetorical talk of pyramid schemes. Her memorable characters grapple with the reality of the mundane, revealing themselves as their own flaws, passions and shortcomings unravel, all while making the audience laugh.

Martinez’s playful “valley girl” voice processes low brow experiences of everyday life transforming them into experimental, comedic, heartfelt pursuits of understanding. Theatrics collects plays, monologues, and other stage writings. Surrealist exploits ensue. Where you start is not where you will end.

Maya’s writing and performances focus on sound, craft and rhythm and other qualities inherent to poetry, her innate form. Her work has been staged at MoMA PS1, Performance Space New York, Hauser and Wirth, and Poetry Project.