Bringing the Performer's Own Identity into the Room

My own research has focused on the use of the performer's identity in the devising process and in performance. I am interested in how the performer's own opinions and natural reactions can influence the process. As an experiment I asked everyone to participate in an exercise we had done previously (The White Moment). This time; however, they were not allowed to make up a random, fantastical topic. Instead, they were asked to give a presentation on an issue they truly care about (for instance, I spoke about my inability as an American to get a job in this country). In previous attempts at this exercise no one truly reached a 'white moment', the moment at which the individual realizes he/she is standing in front of an audience and has just exposed their self by ranting to such an extreme that he/she has lost all sense of time and place. To achieve this the individual must let go of any inner constraints and allow themselves to be completely uninhibited. Perhaps this is why everyone was even more reserved when speaking as their self. The absurd topics that were generated served as a sort of mask. Everyone seemed astonished by themselves when they finished, often saying "I swear I don't know where that came from; I don't know why I said those things." When forced to speak on a real-life issue there was no mask to hide behind, and each individual subsequently became more self-conscious. No one built to a climax. Instead, each time someone got a bit worked up, he/she would quickly back down; perhaps fearing that the others would judge him/her as bad-tempered? It would be interesting to see how we perform this same exercise under the guise of a mask or a costume. I am finding this to be a key element in accessing deeper aspects of the performer's true self.