"Theory and Plastic" is a contribution to the plasticity of current concepts of audience, authorship, artistic research, and institutional conditions, using the work of the artist, designer, and university lecturer Michael Dreyer as an example. The title's reference to Social Sculpture (Beuys) is critically and thoughtfully acknowledged by Dreyer. The authors explore aspects such as the role and representability of the audience (Kai van Eikels), self-fictionalization (Barbara Buchmaier), and performativity in artist films (Felix Ensslin). Helmut Draxler corresponds with Michael Dreyer about the works and references that the artist has created over 25 years. Communicative situations always serve as the starting point for a problematization that is as theatrical as it is medial, as psychological as it is social in Dreyer's work. Consequently, he requested this text.