I have occasionally done bits of re-enactment work, mostly for museums etc. I also have supplied a lot of re-enactors with the wooden bowls they use when doing living history stuff. I have an interest in seeing things done well in scholarly manner, the cooking at Hampton Court for instance. I find the amateur dramatics side of things not my cup of tea. Interestingly I find that the public do not relate to me as a professional craftsman if I am in costume, they immediately assume this is what I do at the weekend and in the week I am an accountant regardless of how skilled and proficient I look. If I wear 21st century clothes or better still just put a leather apron on then instantly I am recognised as a craftsman.
I can see Gary that you do what you do at a serious professional and scholarly level, do you find the public immediately recognise that or do you get the assumption that you just like dressing up at the weekend?
I come across both sides of it Robin; some, as you say, trivialise the background work that goes into putting on a convincing display or presentation. The flip side is that I also come across teachers that think that a "weekend warrior" type re-enactor that goes to events for the fight and the beer tent, is also going to be able to teach a group of school kids something useful about how people lived in the past rather than just how they killed each other.
For the most part though, people are interested in what you are doing and how you are doing it. It doesn't matter much if it is cooking, leather working or silver smithing, they just want to know how things were different from what they know now.