In a multi-disciplinary academic world, saturated with methods, theories and ideologies, theatre researchers and practitioners have a vital need to be familiar with the principles of leading trends of thought in contemporary research discourse. Research is never conducted in a vacuum and is largely dependent on a theoretical point of view and discursive frames. To this end, the course offers a concise presentation of central approaches since the beginning of the 20^th century, still evolving in the 21^th – applied to contemporary theater and performance. The course will focus on linguistic and expended approaches:  Semiotics, Phenomenology and Post-structuralism. The approaches will be demonstrated and the critical gaze will also be turned on theory itself.