Tracy Martin Shearer has been teaching in the theater department at American River College for 20 years.
Shearer attended ARC as an undergraduate student and worked on the American River Current student newspaper as the feature editor.
Shearer has a Bachelor’s degree in theater and a Master’s in music.
“I absolutely love teaching here. The best teachers I had were my ARC teachers,” said Shearer.
She decided to be an adjunct professor, or part time educator, so she could spend more time with her two daughters, Miranda and Emily.
“My mom played Emily Dickinson in a one woman play and she wouldn’t let me name my daughter after her so I named my youngest daughter, Emily.”
Shearer teaches several classes, such as diversity in film and voice dialect, which are two of her favorites.
Alexandria Wilson, a 14 year old who has starred in many ARC productions, credits Shearer for “teaching (her) little voice and acting techniques, especially with reading Shakespeare.”
Wilson’s mother, Kimberlee, says that along with Sam Williams and Sarah Williams Souther, the directors of “GUMBO,” Martin has “helped Alexandria bloom again as an actress.”
Shearer is the director of ARC’s latest play, “The Tempest,” and says it is one of “her bucketlist plays. I loved this play enough to name my oldest daughter after the main character (Miranda).”
She usually directs one play a year, but this year is different.
Shearer is currently the vocal director at Sacramento State University for the play “The Producers” as well.
“There’s a lot of music in that play and I’ve been so busy. Doing two shows at once and working seven days a week,” said Shearer.
Over the course of her time at ARC, Shearer has directed “The Tempest,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “Stop Kiss” and “Out of Sight, Out of Murder,” among others.
“The Tempest” will run from April 22 to May 1 at ARC.
