Crates — John Pesta

In the tradition-bound 1950s, a young woman wants her freedom. Her husband wants her back. And their son is searching for himself.The time and place is Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1955. Lorene, a young mother who married too early, sets out to reinvent herself after leaving a cheating husband, while raising Stevie, a moody and inventive eleven-year-old who is trying to find his place in a fractured family. Seeking a future she hasn't yet defined, Lorene takes a roommate, Becky, who at first seems naive but becomes a clear-eyed confidant; she herself is shedding a dark past.Lorene meets a new man, but does he represent freedom, or a distraction as she seeks new direction in her life? Her ex, Tom, doesn't yet realize Lorene is becoming someone else. And Stevie finds escape by secretly building an intricate maze inside a stack of wooden tobacco crates behind a cigar factory.Lorene and Tom, too, are navigating a labyrinth of their own design -- a maze of midnight diners, long-haul trucking, changing families, and drifting expectations in an America on the edge of a profound shift.