EVEN allowing for jet lag, Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton were finding it challenging to articulate how they learned to divide their responsibilities as artistic directors of the Sydney Theater Company, whose “Uncle Vanya” opens on Saturday. Boldly trying to form complete sentences in a hotel suite only a few hours after arriving in New York from Australia, Mr. Upton compared their partnership to the two halves of a brain, while Ms. Blanchett spoke of “healthy, anarchic randomness” balanced by “rational, militaristic-like precision.”

Then Mr. Upton applied a more logical metaphor, comparing their artistic affiliation to “the marriage of the business and the art, which isn’t necessarily an unhappy marriage.”

“Because in the end, you want happy audiences,” he said. “You want people to come and see your shows. No one’s trying — — ”

“To be Grotowski,” Ms. Blanchett said, finishing Mr. Upton’s sentence with a reference to that experimental theater director. “It’s just guiding the right audience to the right show.”