East Bay Grease — Katherine Vaz

Young widow Brenda Márquez resides in unglamorous Hayward, California, with her sullen daughter, Blanca, and pregnant Gina, an unwed teen with a history in gangs. Stuck in a dead-end job at the DMV, Brenda feels invisible, certain no one could guess she was once loved by someone who's now a famous movie star. But when she fails an angry woman on her driving test and the woman turns the situation into a violent standoff, Brenda discovers just how grand her own stage can be in this funny, wrenching story of how past loves can reverberate for years and keep us going in ways we never imagined.