Works of Shakespeare special (none played to empty theatres) (7)
I believe the answer is:
sonnets
'works of shakespeare' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with creating things as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'special none played to empty theatres' is the wordplay.
'special' becomes 's' (common abbreviation as in Special Air Service).
'played' indicates an anagram.
'to empty' means to remove the middle letters.
'theatres' with its centre removed is 'ts'.
'none' anagrammed gives 'onne'.
's'+'onne'+'ts'='SONNETS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sonnets that I've seen before include "lifted poems" , "Sent son to find short poems" , "verses" , "Fourteen-line poems" .)