Sara Scribner and Jeff Fraga penned one-acts at Field’s End.

Two fledgling playwrights will see their just-completed works move “from page to stage” through an innovative collaboration between Field’s End writers’ community and Bainbridge Performing Arts.

Sara Anne Scribner and Jeff Fraga, two of 10 students crafting scripts for the Field’s End playwriting class, had their one-acts chosen for staged readings.

Scribner’s “Bye Baby Bunting” and Fraga’s “A Simple Twist of Fate” will debute at the Playhouse April 7-9.

“This Field’s End-BPA partnership is a great thing,” said Seattle playwright Amy Wheeler, who taught the Field’s End class. “A play is not what it is on the page. To take the journey you have to be in the room with the director and actors.

“Many playwrights work on a play for years before they have the chance to see it onstage.”

The class met for four sessions over five weeks last fall. After rewriting on their own for another month, the group submitted their plays to Wheeler, Sharon Ott of Seattle Repertory Theater and BPA staff, who then winnowed the 10 entries down to two.

“It wasn’t an easy choice,” Wheeler said, “because there were other strong scripts from people I hope keep on writing.

“For both (scripts chosen), the drafts were pretty solid and it was clear what needed to be done.”

Wheeler believes that Scribner and Fraga’s acting experience may well have helped them in their first attempt to write for the stage.

Scribner, who worked as a librarian and government manager, has been featured in local productions including “The Sound of Music,” “Inspecting Carol,” “Recollections of Flight” and “The Vagina Monologues.”

Fraga writes advertising copy for a living and has published short stories. While the Field’s End class was his first brush with writing for the stage, he’s “tread the boards” quite frequently.

“I was in ‘Crazy For You” and ‘The Man Who Came to Dinner,’ and I was in lots of things in high school,” Fraga said, “so theater’s always kind of fascinated me, and this class came up at Field’s End.”

Fraga enrolled to learn the specialized form of writing – a format he soon discovered was indeed complex.

In just five weeks, he and Scribner learned to put a script together, and both were thrilled to be chosen.

“I have been very excited to be chosen, and it’s a real honor, too, because there were a lot of good writers and experienced writers in our class,” Scribner said. “I’m calm now, but there was a lot of ‘yippee’ at first.”

Scribner came to her fact-based subject – a murder in 17th century New England – through her own genealogical research.

Tracing her forebears to Plymouth Colony, she learned a disquieting fact: that one Allice Martin Clark Bishop, a direct ancestor of Scribner’s, had murdered her own young daughter in 1648.

“When I went to the Seattle Public Library to get the actual Plymouth Colony court records I found the detailed and grisly account of her murdering her child,” Scribner said. “I was very disturbed by the murder and wrote the play to explore my feelings of how she could have done such a thing.”

Fraga’s play is a complete contrast. A comedy about free will and fate, Fraga’s one-act features four actors who embody a range of points of view from fatalist to optimist.

Both neophyte playwrights found that as soon as the lines were spoken – even in audition – the plays began to take on new dimensions.

“It doesn’t necessarily get better when somebody adds something, but it does get different,” Fraga said. “And sometimes it gets way better.

“What I had is a pretty static- looking stage, and (the director and actors) are bringing a lot more to it.”

For Scribner, the challenge is to let go of the work and allow her “very well-groomed play be mussed up, fiddled with and then re-styled.”

As the brief rehearsal time comes to an end, the playwrights look forward to another first: experiencing audience reaction.

“Seeing (my play) from the audience’s point of view, what’s it going to be like, what will their reaction be?” Fraga said.

“When you write a story, or even a novel or a song, you generally aren’t there to get the readers’ reaction. So that’ll be very new.”

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One-act wonders

Field’s End and BPA present two new work productions, “Bye Baby Bunting” by Sara Anne Scribner and “A Simple Twist of Fate” by Jeff Fraga, at 7:30 p.m. April 7-9 at the Playhouse.

Tickets are $10 for adults; $5 for seniors and students, available in advance or at the door. Charge by phone at 842-8569 or purchase online at www.theplayhouse.org. Call 842-8560 for more information.