An Exploratory Study of Flow and Motivation in Theater Actors

The purpose of this study was to examine theater actors' experiences of flow and their motivational characteristics. Forty theater students completed revised versions of the Flow State Scale and the Sport Motivation Scale. Participants viewed theater as very challenging, and they performed at a high skill level when having an optimal performance, which occurred almost four times a year. Participants were strongly motivated to participate in theater because the experience of acting was stimulating and exciting. Theater performers also were motivated to perform, to a lesser degree, by external reasons. Patterns of correlations supported the theoretical foundations underlying both flow and motivation. Finally, MANOVA results indicated gender differences and undergraduate versus graduate student status differences.