MANSFIELD — Tiffini Lance saw her mom get engaged on the Mansfield Playhouse Second Stage more than a decade ago while Natalie McCracken was performing in a show.
On Saturday, McCracken can watch her daughter get married on the main stage of the same Playhouse in downtown Mansfield.
That’s because the show, written and directed by Drew Anderson, is the wedding.
And the wedding, including Anderson as the groom, is the show, simply titled, “The Day Of: The Live Wedding Ceremony of Tiffini Lance and Drew Anderson.”
The public is invited at $12 per ticket (including a $2 online service charge) with all proceeds benefiting the Mansfield Playhouse.
Tickets are available online at https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/Playhouse/3818 for the 6 p.m. show, er, wedding.
It’s a fitting venue for the legal marriage ceremony since the couple met in 2025 while Anderson was performing in the show, “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors.”
The couple became “Facebook friends” at some point. But Anderson caught her eye in the show in October. Lance later got a friend suggestion for Anderson on her TikTok account.
“She was like, “You did a great job in Dracula. And I just never stopped talking to her,” Anderson said.
Was it love at first sight for the 31-year-old Lance when she saw the 37-year-old Anderson?
“That wasn’t my initial thought. I was like, ‘Oh, I think I vaguely know him.’ And I didn’t really think much more of it after we left until he popped up on my suggested friends,” she said with a laugh.
Anderson said, “We started talking all day every day. One thing led to another. We started dating and I proposed in April.”
(Below are photos taken Monday evening during a dress rehearsal of “The Day Of: The Live Wedding Ceremony of Tiffini Lance and Drew Anderson. The story continues below the photos.)
Anderson prefers to work primarily as an artist while Lance is a nurse.
It didn’t take long to settle on a wedding venue — and a different kind of ceremony.
“Once we started talking about getting married and venues, the Playhouse was one of my first suggestions because of the sentimental value,” he said.
“And I’ve always had it in my head that I wanted some sort of production value for my wedding.
“I always saw it as maybe like when the minister says, ‘If anybody objects to this, speak now or forever hold your peace,’ maybe the Imperial March starts playing. Darth Vader comes in and I have got a lightsaber duel for my wife’s honor,” Anderson said.
“But she’s not a big fan of Star Wars,” he said with a laugh.
“The idea for the play just kind of formed in my head and I asked her what she thought about it. She liked the idea.
“I brought it to Doug (Wertz, the Playhouse artistic director) because the more I thought about it I was like, ‘Well, if we do a production and sell tickets to it, the theater can just keep all that.
“They’re in the middle of the capital campaign right now for another building. It’d be a win-win for everybody. Essentially, we would be getting the venue for free and the theater could benefit.
“Doug was on board, and it took me about about a week and a half to two weeks to write it,” Anderson said.
He anticipates the 25-page script will deliver about a 45-minute comedy/wedding. By the way, it’s also the first time he has really tried to write.
“I have a bunch of ideas, but I’ve always procrastinated and never sat down and written anything. It took finding my muse and finally sitting down to do it,” he said with a smile.
Lance said, “He’s a little corny.”
Lance loved the idea of a play, though she has never performed on stage.
“I liked the idea, but I told him I didn’t want to be in it, really. I didn’t think this was a good first try. High stakes,” she said. “But my part is very small. I just come in at the end.”
The show itself leading up to the blessed onstage union basically follows Anderson’s wedding day as he prepares for the nuptials.
“A bunch of mishaps befall me … the groom … but it doesn’t make me still not want to do it,” he said. “It’s a little slapsticky.”
Michael McQuillen, who played the title role in “Dracula,” is the minister in the wedding ceremony.
“He is a licensed Pastafarian. We play into that bit because it’s kind of a silly religion,” Anderson said.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is recognized as a religious organization, and dozens of its ministers have obtained state licenses
The bulk of the cast is a reunion of the group which performed “Squirrel Lake” on the Second Stage in May 2025.
In addition to McQuillen, it includes Scott Woodlee, Jeff Hutchison, Missey Kern Anderson and Mary Kettering from that comedy.
Also in the show are Megan Howell are Jessie Fortune with Jasmine Jarrell and Hazel Jarrell as the flower girls.
Wertz, who is running lights and sound for the show, also contributes his voice for Father Zola. He and Anderson designed the set.
Anderson offered special thanks to Megan Howell (catering), Meagan Windsor (reception decor) and Julia Anderson. The reception was planned by Kirstin Bright Elliott and rentals were provided by Shelly Caltrider and Honeyville Gardens Events and Rentals in Mansfield. The cake is provided by Sweet and Shiny.
For anyone concerned, the bride’s mother is well on board with the whole idea.
McCracken is credited in the program with editing the script. Mothers-in-law always get the last word.
