At long last, after twenty-five years of creative retirement, author/director Brooking finds himself in New Orleans relaxing on Jackson Square in the French Quarter with neighborhood friend Carolyn Krack. You are holding in your hands his new theatre-memoir entitled "THE THEATAH": "An Academic's Love Affair with the Wicked Stage, " In this "magnum opus "of the stage, " "Brooking leads the reader through the roller-coaster world of academic theatre with passion and humor, " "sharing with the reader the director's joys and despairs as he guides fifty plays, musicals and operas from the rehearsal room to opening night. Two galleries of dramatic photos illuminate these journeys. You will also adventure from the classroom into off-beat theatrical byways of Central America and post-WWII Europe. And, as a "lagniappe "(a small French Quarter gift) there are seven deeply-etched monologues for women and an "avant-garde "play called "Crossroads "for the theatre-buff's reading pleasure. "On stage, everybody. Curtain going up "