Theatre studies (sometimes referred to as theatrology or dramatics) is the study of theatrical performance in relation to its literary, physical, psycho-biological, sociological, and historical contexts. It is an interdisciplinary field which also encompasses the study of theatrical aesthetics and semiotics.A late 20th century development in the area has been the ethnographic theory of theatre, pioneered by the Russian scholar Larisa Ivleva (1944 1995) who studied the influence of folk culture on the development of Russian theatre