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Body of Work, Molière’s Tartuffe, and being Starstruck
The BSR Weekly Arts and Culture Roundup, February 19-25, 2026
Kyle V. Hiller
This week, theater is strong in Philly and in the near outskirts of the city, with Bucks County Playhouse, Performance Garage in Fairmount, and the Players Club of Swarthmore opening new shows. Then, the Lunar New Year celebrations continue at Franklin Square and throughout Chinatown, Scribe Video Center hosts a unique three-day film program, and the Mütter Museum takes a deep, deep breath.
The Art of Living Long
Thursday, February 19, 6:30pm
Mütter Museum, 19 South 22nd Street
Vanessa Damilola Macaulay leads this lecture-performance Black History Month event at the Mütter Museum, examining racial assumptions around the spirometer, a device used to gauge lung capacity. Learn about the political and historical dimensions of breath and how, in many contexts, it becomes a form of surveillance, suspicion, or regulation.
Starstruck
February 19-March 21
Bucks County Playhouse, 70 South Main Street, New Hope
A new musical comedy sees its world premiere as it opens Bucks County Playhouse’s 2026 season. Starstruck is set in the mountain town of Sawtooth, Idaho, where the night sky looms large and the stars have never felt closer. Astronomer Cyd DeBerg is determined to secure Dark Sky Reserve status for the town, but not if bar owner JD’s neon sign has anything to say about it. When a nationally known NPR podcaster arrives to cover the conflict, small-town tensions lead to revelations about connection, change, and unexpected attraction.
Starstruck, with a score by Emily Sailiers of the Indigo Girls, hosts previews beginning February 19, opening night on February 28, and an ASL performance on March 15.
Molière’s Tartuffe
February 20-March 8
Performance Garage, 1515 Brandywine Street
This new adaptation of Molière’s Tartuffe revisits Orgon, the epitome of bourgeois respectability, who falls under the spell of the ultra-pious Tartuffe. Only after Tartuffe threatens Orgon’s fortune, his family’s safety, and even their chastity does Orgon begin to recognize the peril of surrendering his judgment to a cultish, self-serving zealot. Opening night is this Friday, with weekend performances through March 8.
Lunar New Year celebration at Franklin Square
Saturday, February 21, 5-7pm
Franklin Square, 200 North 6th Street
The celebration of the Year of the Horse continues in Chinatown with the Philly Suns Lion Dancers, crafts for children with the Asian Arts Initiative, red envelope surprise giveaways, and a free dumpling workshop at Sang Kee.
Rapunzel! Rapunzel! A Very Hairy Fairy Tale
February 21-March 1
Players Club of Swarthmore, 614 Fairview Road, Swarthmore
PCS Theater Children’s series puts Rapunzel! Rapunzel! on stage, a fast-paced, laugh-out-loud musical adventure for audiences of all ages. Dragons, a handsome prince, an evil wouldbe queen, a truly gifted hair stylist, and the famous princess with the long, long, long hair decorate the classic. The R3 Septa train stops at a ten-minute walk away from the theater.
Body of Work
February 25-27
Scribe Video Center, 3908 Lancaster Avenue
Scribe welcomes award-winning filmmaker, author, and cultural historian Yvonne Welbon for a three-day retrospective of her work that spans more than three decades of groundbreaking political and personal filmmaking. Titled Body of Work, the retrospective showcases films that helped shape Black feminist cinema, queer documentary practices, and the preservation of marginalized film histories.
Twelfth Night
February 25-March 29
People’s Light, 39 Conestoga Road, Malvern
People’s Light presents a new production of the Shakespeare classic, reimagined in a playground for the rich and powerful within the lavish world of the Duke’s Palace Hotel and Resort.
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