Saturday, November 14, 2026
Most 17-year-olds don’t get the opportunity to appear in a Broadway play, but Lynbrook native David Kaid is not like most 17-year-olds.
Kaid, who lives in Merrick and attends Sanford H. Calhoun High School, will play Pavel in “The Last Boy ... A New Play With Music,” at a special, one-night benefit performance on April 27.
“The Last Boy,” created by playwright Steven Fisher, tells the remarkable story of 100 boys who lived in the Terezin Concentration Camp, Dorm Number 1, during the Holocaust.
Set in the former Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic, the “last boys,” as they became known, created the longest-running underground publication of the Holocaust, called “Vedem,” which means “we are leading” in Czech. Its contents included poems, essays, jokes, dialogues, literary reviews, stories and drawings as the boys described what they witnessed and their hopes for the future
Fisher, who founded the Keystone State BoyChoir in 2001 and retired in 2020, was touring the Czech Republic with his choir pre-pandemic. They visited Terezin, Fisher said, and learned of Vedem. The choir boys Googled the story and found that some of the last boys had survived. Fisher met with Sidney Tausigg, a 92-year-old survivor living in Florida, and asked for his blessing to write a play inspired by their story.
The play had its premiere in New York last summer. Returning April 27 for a one-night-only event, it will commemorate Yom Ha-Shoah, the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Kaid’s love for theater developed when he performed in several productions at Marion Street Elementary and Lynbrook North Middle schools, and then joined the village-based theater group Plaza Theatrical Productions, where he continued to hone his craft. In eighth grade, he and his family moved to Merrick in the hope that he could join the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District’s specialty drama program, On Tour Company.
Kaid said his mom was on Backstage, a website used by actors to apply to casting calls, and saw that Fisher was interested in him auditioning for “The Last Boy.”
“I read through a couple scenes in the script,” the teenager said. “I thought it was really interesting, and definitely a story that needed to be told.”
Preparing for the performance has been a learning experience on “many levels,” Kaid noted. Fisher arranged for the cast to meet virtually with Tausigg, and another Terezin survivor, Michael Gruenbam.
“Getting to talk with Sidney and Michael — actual survivors — it’s life changing,” Kaid explained. “You always hear stories, but unless you hear it from people who were actually there, it doesn’t resonate as much as it should.”
Some of the original cast from the play’s debut performance are to return. Kaid and a handful of others are new. “I wondered as a director how that would go — with Kaid as a new cast member,” Fisher said.
Kaid said it felt as though he’d always been there. “The people from the original cast have been so generous and helpful guiding new members of the cast,” he said. “I am happy I am able to work with them.”
Kaid has taken what the play has taught him and applied it to his everyday life. Enrolled in a class at Calhoun called “Voices From The Past,” he said it teaches students about hate and genocide, and why it occurs.
“I got to share the story of the last boys with my class — and no one knew about it,” he explained. “Being a part of ‘The Last Boy’ has broadened my knowledge of anti-Semitism and dehumanization. It is relevant to what is happening today. Even in the darkest of times — there is still light in humanity.”
The April performance will take place at The Town Hall in Manhattan. The one-act, 90-minute show will end promptly at sundown — the start of Yom HaShoah — and 100 people throughout the venue will stand with candles to pay tribute to Vedem’s contributors. After the performance, the audience will go to Times Square and light candles to honor the estimated 1.5 million children murdered in Terezin.
The proceeds from ticket sales will directly benefit several organizations, Fisher explained. They include The Blue Card, which helps Holocaust survivors, and The Defiant Requiem, a foundation that preserves the memory and legacy of those imprisoned at Terezin.
Tickets are going quick, Fisher said, but there are still some left. They can be purchased via links on thelastboy.info.
Holocaust survivors and their guests can attend free of charge. “It will be a very, poignant evening,” Fisher said.
When asked if he ever envisioned himself getting an opportunity to appear on Broadway, at the age he is, Kaid said he didn’t think it would happen so soon. “As an actor, I am always hoping for something like this to happen, and I am always imagining something like this happening,” he said. “Getting this opportunity, I knew I had to take it.”
Kaid said he plans to study drama in college and has been accepted to several schools. He said he’ll likely make a decision next month.
“David has such a commanding stage voice — kudos to all of his teachers and him,” Fisher said. “Based on David’s obvious passion and commitment to theater, I am not surprised he could be part of this very special ensemble.”
