[2] The new theatre, Lehmann asserts, is characterised by, amongst other things, the 'use and combination of heterogeneous styles',[3] it situates itself as after or beyond dialogue[4] and incorporates the notion of the 'performer as theme and protagonist'.
[5] In its most radical varieties, postdramatic theatre knows no "plot" at all, but concentrates fully on the interaction between performer and audience.
[6] Some names associated with postdramatic theatre are Tadeusz Kantor (Kraków),[7] Heiner Müller (Berlin),[8] René Pollesch (Berlin),[9] Robert Wilson (New York City),[10] The Wooster Group (New York City),[11] The Builders Association[12] (New York City), Giannina Braschi (San Juan, Puerto Rico),[13] Elizabeth LeCompte (New York City), Richard Foreman (New York City), Robert Lepage (Quebec, Canada), Pina Bausch (Wuppertal, Germany),[14] Big Art Group (New York City), Jan Fabre, Jan Lauwers and Needcompany, Frank Castorf (Berlin), Josef Szeiler/TheaterAngelusNovus (Vienna), Elfriede Jelinek (Vienna),[15] Heiner Goebbels (Frankfurt),[16] Verdensteatret (Oslo), Alvis Hermanis (Riga), Forced Entertainment (Sheffield), Teater Moment (Stockholm), the Apocryphal Theatre (London),[17] The Sydney Front (Australia) and Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio (Italy), Pan Pan (Ireland),[18] POST (Australia), Action Hero (United Kingdom), Nature Theatre of Oklahoma (United States),[19] Scum!
A new generation of internationally working postdramatic directors is changing the big picture: Among them are Thomas Luz, Amir Reza Koohestani, Susanne Kennedy,[20] Dusan David Parizek, Yael Ronen, Simon Stone, Kai Tuchmann, Anna Bergmann, Bastian Kraft, Ulrich Rasche, Nicolas Stemann, and Kay Voges.
"[22] Several scholars, including Fuchs, have also noted that the concept of the postdramatic is not Lehmann's original idea, and that, in fact, the concept was first introduced by Andrzej Wirth of the Institut fur Angewandte Theaterwissenschaft and Richard Schechner, director of The Performance Group, and professor of Performance Studies at New York University.