BENICIAN Jeremy Padrones (Usnavi) and Catherine Delos Santos (Vanessa) in the Peter Pan Foundation production of “In the Heights.”
Thomas Hayes photo

Two performances for 2012 BHS graduate

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

When the musical “In the Heights” opens Friday night at Diablo Valley College, Benicia resident Jeremy Padrones will be in the lead.

In two of the four performances, Padrones will play the character Usnavi to Catherine Delos Santos’s Vanessa in the Peter Pan Foundation production, spokesman Gary Carr said.

Padrones is new to the world of theater, said Carr, of Rising Moon Marketing and Public Relations.

A 2012 graduate of Benicia High School, where he appeared as a member of the School Board Quartet in “The Music Man,” Padrones also was a musician in the high school band.

He’s completed his first year at Napa Valley College, where he’s studying music, hoping to expand his experience in acting and preparing to transfer to a four-year college to continue his music studies, Carr said.

Padrones recently appeared in the college’s production of “The Sound of Music” as an ensemble member, and in the NVC Chorale, for which he’s performed Dave Brubek’s “La Fiesta de la Posada” and Vivaldi’s “Gloria,” Carr said.

“In the Heights” is Padrones’s first performance with the Peter Pan Foundation, and the musical gives him his first shot at a lead role.

The Peter Pan Foundation is based in Lafayette, and is led by founder Leslie Noel, who previously directed most of its musicals for the past seven years. Noel, of Concord, is also the director of “In the Heights”; Sierra Dee of Concord is the musical director and Justin Cole of San Pablo is in charge of choreography.

The production of the Tony Award-winning musical is a fundraiser for Children’s Hospital, Oakland, Carr said.

Since 2007, Peter Pan Foundation has raised more than $150,000 for the hospital and other causes, including the Bay Area Magic Makers that organizes monthly community service and peer-outreach events, Carr said.

“In the Heights,” written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, tells the story of life in the Manhattan area of Washington Heights, a tight-knit community “where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music,” Carr said.

When it was on Broadway in 2008, “In the Heights” quickly attracted audiences’ and critics’ approval, Carr said.

Alternating with Padrones in the lead role of Usnavi is Jacob Ben-Shmuel of Clayton.

Padrones plays the role at 7 p.m. Friday and at 2 p.m. Saturday, with Ben-Shmuel on stage at 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. All performances are at the Diablo Valley College Performing Arts Center, 321 Golf Club Road, Pleasant Hill.

Tickets are $25 for adults and $12 for those 18 and younger. They’re available online at www.PeterPanFoundation.org or by emailing ppfmagic@gmail.com.

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