Community Musical Theater as a Human Flourishing Project

This chapter analyzes how local community musical theater contributes to well-being. Amateur theater-makers volunteer to participate during their leisure time outside of work and school and homemaking, so they’re intrinsically motivated. Local community theater enables self-efficacy, social integration, and positive life outlook. Using the human flourishing framework constructed by positive psychologists and methods of participant observation and in-depth interviews, the chapter presents the entire theater-making process-from season selection to auditions to early and later rehearsals to performance and beyond-to examine why people, including the director, actors, and technicians, elect to participate in community musical theater and why it matters to them.