About
A film studio with a new model.
Chaplins is both a film studio and a theatre company, founded in Vacaville, California and based in Sacramento. The human element and storytelling aspect of watching an actor on stage or screen experience an emotional reality is something we don't want to lose, and with the advent of new technologies, we want to bolster that human quality, not replace it. We believe art should give something back to the viewer — inspiration, hope — and we as artists are planting those seeds of possibility through education as one of our founding pillars.
Giving people the opportunity and space to explore their own creativity is often all we need to unlock our own self-expression.
Founder
Phoenix Brewer
Founder & Education Program Manager
My path started in a lab. I was a pre-med student studying neuroscience, asking how the mind forms through neuroplasticity and the limbic system, and how the interplay of consciousness makes us who we are. Once I found theatre, I discovered the other half of that question: what it means to be alive and express it.
Through my experience in college, I realized that the theatre skills I was learning surrounding confidence and expression had lacked in my elementary education; and as I looked deeper, I saw that arts education had been lacking in schools for decades. With what I gained in college, I knew that if students were introduced to these concepts earlier to allow neural pathways of self-expression to establish themselves, it would set them up for successful futures by giving them the skillset that modern industry actually rewards: having a voice.
Why an education arm
Funding the films of tomorrow by teaching the youth today.
We aren't a Hollywood studio, and we don't want to be. We are creating something new right here in Northern California, where artists are able to explore their craft and serve their community as they support themselves.
At Chaplins, we are using our artistic expertise to give back to the youth and invest in our future: this is how we are funding our slate of films and seasons of theatre.
Born from CLARA
Chaplins Education grew out of Phoenix's work with CLARA, a Sacramento-based nonprofit dedicated to quality arts education across the region, and we're proud to continue as an approved CLARA partner. We share CLARA's belief that the arts create better humans, and as Chaplins carries this teaching-artist model into new communities across Northern California, we give back a share of every residency to support CLARA's work.
Partners
Better Humans Education
Our curriculum partner — the authors of Performers Ready!
- CLARA
CLARA
Our founding community partner, and where this work began.
Our film & theatre work
Chaplins Entertainment, our film arm, received a Sacramento Film Office grant for a first feature, releasing 2027, with the short film version being programmed at the Academy Award–qualifying festival, Cinequest.