Talking to the Public, the 1st Through 3rd Persons

Talking to the Public, Wakarusa 2017

As reenactors we are often called "Living Historians" because of the level of knowledge and passion we bring to the subject.  Many reenactors could easily compete with a professional Historian on the level of raw knowledge. What makes it different for us is the fact that we are "Living" the past and doing things much as they did back then, whatever the era being portrayed.

When we are in the field at a reenactment or some other event, very often the public comes by and wants to ask questions about some aspect of life or history. That begs the question, "How do we talk to these people?"  There are three ways of doing it, commonly referred to as 1st Person, 2nd Person and 3rd Person.

1st Person is where you are essentially an actor in a giant play. As a Civil War reenactor the year might be 1863 in this mode and nothing about the 21st century exists.  If you have extensive knowledge and a good character/persona it can work great. In the post on Racism and Historical Interpretation, I briefly told the story of the Jamestown interpreter. He acted as if he were in 17th century Jamestown. That was an example of a professional 1st Person portrayal.  I have done 1st Person a few times but it can be challenging and I prefer not to.

The main difficulty with 1st Person is there can be no frame of reference to help draw in the public. If the event is set in 1861 and they ask a question about General Lee surrendering in 1865, I would not be able to answer that.  To my character it hasn't happened yet.  This can be extremely confusing to members of the public, especially children.

What many reenactors do, myself and Jade included, is use the 2nd Person. In this method we are dressed period but we talk modern.  This allows reenactors to have good frames of reference and can talk about the era in general.  Essentially it turns a situation of "we did something" to "they did something."  It also allows us to get away with situations such as the one pictured above. We are wearing wool uniforms and carrying 1860s weapons, but behind us are modern grain silos and automobiles.  This was the point in the Jamestown story where the tour guide went around the tree and started speaking to us as a modern person.

The 3rd Person is one reenactors use the least. This is where we aren't even dressed period but still talking to public.  This usually happens during setup or tear down at an event. It is also , for example, where a uniformed National Park Ranger leads a tour through a battlefield.  They are talking about what the soldiers did and trying to get you to imagine it.

Until next time, keep your powder dry and we will see you on the field.

-Corporal