Still, they are inarguably talented. Molly will give her opinion of the frame, just not right now. Their attention to detail is impressive; this is something Cate really likes about them, and might be a reason they picked her. She enjoys watching them roll the pieces around. Tiny, wobbly balls of mercury that attach to each other as they go, obtaining critical mass. This is the way they assemble plays that will be remembered, and win awards and get produced again and again. In this effort, they appear to have abandoned small courtesies that might siphon off their focus. They let everyone else recede to a pulsing blur, a blur emitting a soft gray noise. It’s kind of hilarious how everyone is a gofer to them, fetching whatever while the two hold their vision aloft. Well, except for Gladys Banner, who, being a huge movie star, could have taken the play or left it. The play’s success is not reliant on her, but her name on the marquee will pump up advance ticket sales. Gladys is not asked to run errands.

When Cate brings the coffee back from Hssss, an espresso shop around the corner, ferrying it with the enormous amount of balance necessary to not disrupt the skin of micro-froth on the top, she sets it on the binder resting semi-precariously on the arm of a fourth-row seat next to the one Molly occupies. (A few hours later, when Cate leaves the theater, she’ll notice the coffee still in place where she set it down, the foam intact.)

They’ve loaded in the sets today. Two—Vita’s living room and her garden—are already up on the gliding platforms. The less elaborate ones—the train station platform, the basement, Persia (two taxidermied camels; a large, shallow sandbox; a stationary sunrise at a horizon) await transfer. This afternoon Cate will time the stagehands switching the sets to see how the scene transitions might be speeded up. One of the pitfalls of multiple set changes is the collective blinking of cell phones lighting up the darkness so audience members can check the time. When that happens, you’ve broken whatever spell you’ve managed to create.

Cate is looking at the camels, which are a little more threadbare than she was hoping for. She’ll have to find a rug to cover the bald spot on the worse one. Persia would not have given a diplomat’s wife a mangy ride.

Cate is not going to have the luxury of being a creative diva on this production. She runs even the smallest adjustment past Lauren and Molly. They are her masters. If they want changes, even drastic ones, she nods and gets to work. Nonetheless, by the tiniest increments, they seem to trust Cate more, now leave small and middle-size choices to her. She can bring in a frame or a fuse box now, relatively unchallenged.