Our Team
We’ve been lucky enough to have had many different wonderful actors, techs, and designers work with us over the years - but you might notice a few regular faces.
Celia Taylor
Celia founded Empress of Blandings productions in 2015. She is a playwright and theatre artist currently based in Vancouver, but she is summoned back to Edmonton every August by the siren song of the Fringe. She is the president of Glitch Theatre, and an ensemble member of the Leaping Thespians theatre group.
Artistic Director
Tegan Siganski
Tegan Siganski has been stage manager/producer/technical director/invaluable jack-of-all-trades for Empress of Blandings since its inception. She serves as an active Board Member at Azimuth Theater and a volunteer producer on The Neurodiversity Voices Podcast.
Company Producer
Actor/DesignerRory Turner
Rory is a designer, performer, and theatre maker from the prairies. He attended the Theatre Arts program at MacEwan University and studied theatre design at the University of Alberta. He is a design instructor at the Citadel’s Foote Theatre School, a lighting designer for Common Ground Arts’ RISER production development projects, and the Scenic Arts Supervisor for the U of A Drama Department.
ActorMaggie Salopek
Maggie has performed in Empress of Blandings' productions of The Importance of Being Earnest, Creatures of Impulse, and The Cult of the Clitoris. She has also performed in The Castle Spectre and The Cat and the Canary (Paper Crown Theatre), Blue Stockings (Walterdale Playhouse), and Prime Stock Theatre’s Bard on Bower.
Émanuel Dubbeldam
Émanuel is a queer and trans artist based in Edmonton. He acts, writes, and produces theatre and film in English and French. He co-hosted the children's TV show ONIVA! (Radio-Canada) from 2020 to 2024. More recently, he has performed in Les Sentinelles (Cie OTEP, L'UniThéâtre, Théâtre français de Toronto) and Re:Construct (Edmonton’s Common Ground Arts Society, Toronto’s Why Not Theatre).
Actor
André Lemay
Locally sourced from right here in Edmonton, André is a school teacher by school year and a wandering soul by summer. He has performed with Empress of Blandings in Creatures of Impulse, Hardboiled. The Flying Doctor, and The Cult of the Clitoris.
Actor
ActorRochelle Laplante
Rochelle is an actor and performer based in Edmonton. Her theatre credits include Caribbean Muskrat (Teatro la Quindicina), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Little Shop of Horrors, and Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Citadel Theatre), Macbeth (Freewill Shakespeare Festival).
ActorCeris Backstrom
Ceris Backstrom is an Edmonton actor, reader, nature-enjoyer and dog parent. They have appeared in several Empress of Blandings productions in the past, including Hardboiled, The Flying Doctor and She's Not Him and He's Not Her, and they are proud to be part of such a creative, fun, queer led company.
Lauren Hughes
Lauren Hughes is a graduate of the BFA Acting program at the University of Alberta. You may recognize her from The Skin of Our Teeth (Bright Young Things), Silent Sky (Walterdale Playhouse), and a Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatre Prospero).
Actor
Damon Pitcher
Damon Pitcher is an Edmonton based theatre artist and an alumnus of MacEwan University Theatre Arts program. Acting credits include Vinyl Cafe: The Musical (Citadel Theatre); Krampus: A New Musical (Straight Edge Theatre); Assassins (Uniform Theatre); Ride the Cyclone, Spring Awakening (Strathcona Alumni Theatre Company); Christmas Around the World (Vinok Worldance)
Actor
Dave Clarke
Dave has composed and produced music and sound designs for over 500 projects in theatre, film, dance and multi-media. He has created sound and music for the Citadel, Theatre Network, Edmonton Opera, Firefly Theatre, Shadow Theatre, and more, and he is the recipient of many awards, including numerous Sterlings (Edmonton Theatre Awards) for outstanding original music, sound design and musical direction. For many years, he was the sound guy for CBC’s The Irrelevant Show.
Actor/composer/sound designer