Lawrence playwrights will be in the spotlight starting Friday as EMU Theatre and Lawrence Community Theatre host the “Citywide Festival of Playwrights.”

The events start Friday with EMU Theatre’s fifth-annual festival of 10-minute plays, titled “Junkyard Dogma.” The shows will be at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Friday and at 8 p.m. Saturday, all at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H. Cost is $6 at the door.

The shows will be repeated at the same time Aug. 25 and 26.

Playwrights featured in the show will be Nathan Towns, Adri Pendergrass, Andrew Stowers, Ron Willis, Rachel Sorrels, Dan Spurgin, Marie Lyddon, Feloniz Lovato-Winston, Pam Grout and Dean Bevan.

The Lawrence Community Theatre also will have events those weekends. The company will perform staged readings of Chris Cook’s “Waiting to Die” at 8 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. It also will perform staged readings of Betty Laird’s “Essential Elements of a Gothic Mystery,” at 8 p.m. Aug. 26 and 2:30 p.m. Aug. 27.

Tickets to those events, which will take place at the Community Theatre building, 1501 N.H., also are $6 each.