This is the first co-production for the two award-winning Off-Broadway companies.

Here's how the play is characterized: "Set in present-day Beijing, Outside People, a fascinating and darkly comic new play, is the story of a young American man, Malcolm, who falls in love with a Chinese woman, Xiao Mei. But as his eyes open to the social, political and economic forces that inform their relationship, he must confront his complex place in a foreign culture, the friendship that brought him there, and his own deepest fears and desires."

Performances begin in December 2011 toward an opening in January 2012. Douglas Aibel is artistic director of Vineyard Theatre, and Andy Donald is artistic director of Naked Angels.

The cast and design team for Outside People will be announced.

Dohrn is a playwright and screenwriter living in New York City. His plays — including Sick, Magic Forest Farm and Reborning — have been produced and developed across the country, including at Manhattan Theatre Club, Berkshire Theatre Festival, MCC, Marin Theatre Company, The Public (SPF), Naked Angels, South Coast Rep, The Vineyard, Southern Rep, Kitchen Dog, The Lark, New York Theatre Workshop, and San Francisco Playhouse. He earned his MFA from NYU and was a Lila Acheson Wallace Fellow at Juilliard.

Cabnet recently directed the world premiere of David West Read's The Dream of the Burning Boy for Roundabout Theatre Company, as well as Oliver Parker! and Oohrah! Off-Broadway.

For more information about Vineyard Theatre visit www.vineyardtheatre.org. For more about Naked Angels visit www.nakedangels.com.