What Does A Theatre Academic Do?

Becoming an academic in theatre is a curious thing; it's becoming a member of a body, whose job is not to do, but to comment upon doing from a removed or remote position. Instead of doing, which is the word most associated with 'drama' (it's drama translated in fact), they look at doing and comment.  In my opinion it's the opposite of useful because there are critics to do this professionally.  The job of an academic is to teach and research.  Teaching is often the least favourite part of an academic's role, instead many of them want to research, mainly because it's the only way to get a promotion within the academic environment.

But what is research into theatre? I can understand a scientist researching cancer cells, or even someone doing translations of ancient French, but what would a theatre academic research? Would they research methods of improving or bettering the work of theatre? No.  Instead the goal is to write essays on abstract matters related to theatre, which are published for the interest of… other academics.  There's something rotten in the state of Denmark, no?