Packing Up the Past

With 12 years of experience as a professional organizer, Lori Jenson feels confident that she can handle the toughest clients. But she’s about to take on her biggest challenge yet—her aging, widowed mother Ruth. As Lori helps Ruth sort through her house full of mementos to prepare for a downsize, sparks fly, family secrets are revealed, and Lori and Ruth’s relationship is tested as never before. 

While Lori can usually count on her husband Jake and her daughter Josie’s support, they’re working through dilemmas of their own. Jake is contemplating a bold career change, even though his job is the major source of the family’s financial stability. He hasn’t quite worked up the courage to let Lori know, and as time passes, the tension continues to build. 

Meanwhile, Josie is beginning to doubt her promise to take over her mother’s organizing business after finishing college. Career thoughts are taking a back seat to the excitement of an upcoming study abroad program and her boyfriend. While she knows it’s well past time to inform her parents of both pieces of news, so far the only person she’s willing to confide in is her grandmother Ruth. And Ruth’s got secrets of her own that she’s only telling Josie. 

Jake and Josie keep things cheerful with some lighthearted pranks and dad jokes, and a surprise mystery visitor brings some levity to the growing family drama. But ultimately, decisions will need to be made to move the family forward. Will Ruth be able to let go of the past? Can Jake and Josie find the courage to speak up? In this heartwarming comedy-drama, each person must decide what to hold onto, what to let go, and how to count on each other and their faith to bring them lasting joy and peace.

Got questions?

Contact Angie Hyche (angela.hyche@gmail.com)

Audition Information

  • Monday, August 31st or Tuesday, Sept. 1st from 6-8 pm

  • Auditions take place promptly starting at 6 pm each night so please arrive as close as possible to this time.

  • Actors may attend either evening of auditions.

  • Callbacks (if needed by directors discretion) will be held on the Wednesday following the second night of auditions starting at 6 pm.

  • Wear clothing comfortable for movement.

  • Actors will read excerpts from the script for the character(s) they are interested in auditioning for.

Cast List

  • Lori Jenson (female, age 40s to 50s): Lori is a professional organizer and the owner of LJ’s Organizing Solutions. She’s the wife of Jake Jenson, mother of Josie Jenson, and daughter of Ruth Gregory. She’s been a professional organizer for 12 years, and she enjoys going into client’s homes to help them declutter and organize, although she often complains about the negative aspects of the job. Even though Lori helps people declutter for a living and she keeps her home uncluttered, Lori has a secret weakness for sentimental items. She’s anticipating a difficult time as she plans to tell her mother it’s time to declutter and downsize. Lori hopes to turn her business over to Josie upon retirement. 

  • Ruth Gregory (female, age 60s to 80s): Ruth (Lori’s mother, Josie’s grandmother, Jake’s mother-in-law) is a retired teacher and a widow who lives alone in a home that has been in the Gregory family (her deceased husband Robert’s family) for five generations. She loves her home, her hometown, her widows group, which has been her lifeline, and her church family. Over the past few years, she’s begun to suffer from an increasing amount of health issues, including a recent broken hip. She’s afraid Lori is going to pressure her to start decluttering, and she’s not ready. 

  • Jake Jenson (male, age 40s to 50s): Jake, (husband of Lori, father of Josie, son-in-law of Ruth) is a mechanical engineer who became a project manager a few years ago. He’s learned a lot about home improvement from his father and father-in-law, and he’s put this knowledge and his skills to work in building an apartment that they intend to rent when it’s completed. He’s enjoying this project so much that he’s become a bit disenchanted with his management job, and he’s considering making a big career change. 

  • Josie Jenson (female, 20s): Josie (daughter of Lori and Jake, granddaughter of Ruth) is an upcoming college junior living with roommates in an off-campus apartment. During her summers and holiday breaks, she enjoys helping her mother Lori with her professional organizing clients. She’s great at organizing, but her own personal spaces can sometimes be a mess. Although she and her mother have talked about her taking over the organizing business when her mother retires, she’s not sure she wants to do that. She’s still figuring things out, and she hopes an upcoming study abroad opportunity will help her decide. She’s dreading telling her parents about her uncertainty about the future, the study abroad program, and about her boyfriend.

  • Logan Miller (male, 20s): Logan Miller is an upcoming senior software engineering major who is dating Josie. He just started job searches and is interviewing with tech companies on the West Coast. Logan and Josie will both be studying abroad next year. He and Josie have only been dating a few months. They’re taking things slowly, but he really enjoys being with her and is already thinking about a potential future together.