No Great Magic by Fritz Leiber — Read

I know death hath ten thousand several doors For men to take their exits, and 'tis found They go on such strange geometrical hinges, You may open them both ways. -- The Duchess

There is this about an actor on stage: he can see the audience but he can't _look_ at them, unless he's a narrator or some sort of comic. I wasn't the first (Grendel groks! ) and only scared to death of becoming the second as Siddy walked me out of the wings onto the stage, over the groundcloth that felt so much like ground, with a sort of interweaving policeman-grip on my left arm.