Normally I would write about Sonny Rollins on my other blog, but it occurred to me today that something that he said about his career might shed some light on one of the factors that helped Shakespeare to the heights of his particular profession. Rollins, now eighty years of age, said that he continues to travel and tour at an impressive rate for one primary reason: for how much he learns about his craft from audiences. He feels that the interaction, the feedback, the input to his thought process that is given to him by an audience is crucial to his continued development. This made me think of Shakespeare and the many performances in which he participated as both actor and playwright in front of crowds that, by all the accounts that I've read, were not afraid to hide their feelings. I don't know, but I don't think that there have been many writers that have had the opportunity for that much interaction with audiences. The poetry, the history, the philosophy, all of that can be learned from intensive reading, and was in his case, but the unparalleled dramaturgical skills would have required practice in the real world.