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 theoretical and critical approaches in contemporary research discourse. Both research and creation are never conducted in a vacuum and are largely dependent on points 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 selectively on Semiotics, Phenomenology, anthropology & Ethnography, and post-colonialism.  The approaches will be demonstrated and the critical gaze will also be turned on theory itself.