The May Queen

Who were you in high school? Were you a popular kid, a nerd, a jock or a prom queen? What “most likely to” superlative did you receive, and did you go on to become the person you aspired to be? For Jen Nash, being crowned the May Queen of Kingston High School was more of a jail sentence than a superlative. An honor bestowed upon one lucky girl at the annual May Day ceremony, the May Queen wears a white toga and is paraded through town in celebration of spring’s arrival. She is envied and worshipped by many. But for Jen Nash, May Day was a trauma from which she’s never recovered, and she disappeared from her hometown shortly thereafter. The gossip mill in Kingston kicks into high gear when, 15 years later, she returns home under mysterious circumstances, seeming a husk of her former self. Everyone has a theory about where she’s been, of course. Was she one of Elliot Spitzer’s hookers? Was she in a cult? Was she married to a sheik in Dubai? Jen answers none of these questions; she just hides out in her parents’ house and takes a temp job at a discount insurance company, where her new coworkers—the Zumba-addicted Gail and bookish nerd Dave—attempt to pull out any info they can. But when Jen finds out that her former high-school flame, Mike Petracca, with whom she shares a complicated past, is the star salesman at the insurance company, she knows she won’t be able to keep her secrets for long. In this fun, dark and surprising office comedy, Jen fights to be released from the prison of her small town’s expectations, abdicate the throne and disclose once and for all who she really is.