Your Weekend Guide to Shakespeare, Doowop and Film

It’s Thursday, and you’ve begun to think about the long weekend stretched out before you. Don't let the rain put a damper on your plans. Let us help. We’ve got the best bets for you whether you want to stay close to home or find something to do a little farther afield. Check our picks for the places to see and things to do.

This week we feature two cultural celebrations, a not-so-serious take one of the world's most famous writers and a sober look at a serious topic, stem cells. 

• Where/when: Poway Center for the Performing Arts, Poway, 6:30 p.m., Feb. 20

• Why Go: To join in the celebration of the Year of the Rabbit, by the American Chinese Culture and Education Foundation. 

• Price: $20-100

• Where/when: St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, Poway, 10:45  a.m., Feb. 20

• Why Go: The church tackles the weighty subject of stem-cell research, hosting Jeanne F. Loring, founding director of the new Center for Regenerative Medicine at the Scripps Institute in La Jolla. She will discuss the latest advances in  research to ease heart disease.

• Price: Free.

• Where/when: Various theaters, including San Marcos and San Diego, Feb. 17-20.

• Why Go: The San Diego Jewish Film Festival concludes this weekend with screenings at five venues, including Edwards San Marcos and Clairemont Reading Town Square. For full venue/movie listings, see the festival website.

• Price: $11.25-$13.25

• Where/when: The Patio Playhouse, Escondido, 8 p.m., Feb. 18

• Why Go: OK, so it's not Hamlet's famous question, but this one that's posed by the spoof "The Beard of Avon:" Does Shakespeare deserve credit for all of his numerous classic plays? It's unlikely you'll get any answers, but you'll probably have a few laughs as the players try to figure it out.

• Price: $7-15.

• Where/when: California Center for the Arts, Escondido, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 19

• Why Go: To remember the good old days and hum along with doowop performers like the Tokens and Bobby Hendricks Drifters as they sing classic pop songs of the '50s and '60s. 

• Price: $25-60