we'll talk to the director of the new york public theatre, barbara gainse, director of the chicago shakespeare theatre and hear from some others from previous appearances on our program. they include shakespeare scholar steven greenblatt and harold bloom, also the director of the royal shakespeare company michael boyd. we then conclude our evening looking at hamlet. sir john ghoul good whose portrayals are considered some of the finest describe it as summing of the process of living, help us. with that, i would like to welcome you to the first episode in our charlie rose shakespeare series we call why shakespeare? i hope you enjoy the conversations. >> good night, good night. parting is such sweet sorrow. but i shall say good night so it be morrow. >> rose: when somebody says to you who was shakespeare wa, do you say? >> he was the greatest writer in the history of the english language. he was the person who made the theatre democratic. and that's what made him the greatest writer. because you look at shix spear, you look at him in context. and what he did was write for an audience and he had