Entertainer needing skill with one's empty theatre (7)
I believe the answer is:
artiste
'entertainer' is the definition.
(artiste is a kind of entertainer)
'skill with one's empty theatre' is the wordplay.
'skill' becomes 'art' (I've seen this before).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'one's' becomes 'is' (roman numeral).
'empty' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'theatre' with its middle taken out is 'te'.
'art'+'is'+'te'='ARTISTE'
'needing' is the link.
(Other definitions for artiste that I've seen before include "Player" , "A sitter for creative person" , "Attires (anag.)" , "A sitter for a performer" , "Attires like entertainer" .)