DK: It’s about the Paris catacombs, which is a large underground morgue that runs in caverns under Paris. It was constructed from 1786-1788 before the French Revolution for reasons of public health. The cemeteries in Paris were overcrowded and they had to move the bodies. I’m trying to look at the construction of catacombs as metaphors for the fall of the ancien régime.

THC: What inspired this work?

DK: The catacombs themselves, which I visited with a friend after freshman year. They are overwhelming, there are six million bodies, all very neatly arranged—the skulls are stacked neatly with femurs and they make designs and patterns. It seemed like such an overwhelming project, it was hard to put people into its construction. I originally thought I might write a novel about their construction, but the interplay between Louis XVI and Charles Axel-Guillaumont, their designer, was a relationship with a lot of dramatic potential.

THC: So Louis XVI and Charles Axel-Guillaumont are two of the main characters; are there others?

DK: I want to have a lot of other characters. I am trying to make this a spectacular dramatic work, not to say that my writing will be spectacular, but I want it to be close to a popular eighteenth century spectacle with a huge cast and lots of effects. I want it to approach that style—it will be an intense counterpoint to the morbidity of the subject matter.

THC: What is the difference between writing a piece to be performed and writing for people who will read it and never see it?

DK: I’m writing more for readers in this case, trying not to limit my imagination to what is easily feasible on stage. I mean, there are some theaters that can have a room from Versailles fall from the roof but those are not theaters I am going to have access to. With readers you have no limits, they can imagine anything. That makes this a little closer to a novel—it’s useful not to have practical limits. It makes this piece unperformable but I think that’s okay.

THC: You seem to have had a lot of influences for your plot. What influences your dialogue, how do you make it realistic?

DK: Well, that’s my weakest point, which is bad for a playwright. My thesis advisor, Todd Kessler is a screenwriter, he’s worked on “The Sopranos” and other television and screen projects that are character based in a way that many of the plays I’ve read don’t have to be. Most plays I’m interested move away from straight character interaction. He [Kessler] is pushing me to focus on relationships for my foundation and that has been incredibly useful.

THC: Who are your influences?