To help promote its upcoming double-bill of original student one-act plays, both of which deal with young people in search of sex and romance, English Alternative Theatre is sponsoring a writing competition open to all Lawrence residents, including KU students, faculty and staff, on the subject of “How My Parents Met.”

Entries in any genre should be no more than 250 words, must include the writer’s full name, age and occupation, and must be e-mailed with the subject heading “How My Parents Met” before 5 p.m. Friday to plim@ku.edu. Twenty-four finalists will be selected, eight of which will be read by the writers themselves in front of the audience prior to each of the three performances of the student one-acts. A winner will be announced each night after the show, and three $100 cash prizes will be awarded.

“Please Take … Seriously!” by Adam Lott traces the history of a couch from 1958, when it is first brought into a fraternity house, through different decades up to the present, when its fate is being determined by two female professors who can’t decide whether to get rid of it. If this couch could talk, what stories would it tell? “Lights Fade, Curtain” by Whitney Rowland is about a playwright trying to understand his own life by attempting to write about his parents, how they first met, and why their marriage fell apart.

Performances are 8 p.m. Nov. 9-10, and 2:30 p.m. Nov. 11 at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire. Tickets are $10 for the general public, $8 for seniors and $6 for students and are available by calling 843-2787.