This indispensable student guide to the study of drama is the first to explain in detail the relationship between the drama text and the theory and practice of theatre in performance. The study of semiotics is an increasingly important area of critical practice, and a vital component in any up-to-date drama course, yet it poses a number of tricky and tantalising questions for the student approaching it for the first time. What is the relationship between theory and practice? How can an understanding of the text as a system of signs be related to the semiotics of stage performance? Can the performance of drama also be read as a sign-system? Beginning at the beginning, with accessible explanations of the meanings and methods of semiotics, Theatre as Sign-System addresses key drama texts, from Sophocles to Caryl Churchill, and offers new and detailed information about performance theory which can be related to textual practice.