Live & In Color performances return to Salem this weekend.

Live & In Color is an incubator for new plays and musicals, with a mission of diversity and inclusion. The program was created by Artistic Director Dev Janki and is based at the Bingham Camp in Salem. Each fall, a new play and musical are developed and then given staged readings in front of the public.

The play this year is “i know why iris chang died” by Esme Maria Ng, inspired by the life and death of Chinese American journalist Iris Chang. In the drama, May — a graphic novelist who has a twin — deals with depression and tries to create a graphic memoir about their family’s experience during the Rape of Nanking. Live & In Color states: “A story about grief, remembrance, and art-making in the face of destruction, the piece explores what it means to survive and what it means to live.”

It will be performed Friday night.

The musical is “ZOMBIES, INC.” by Marcus Perkins Bejarano and Kim Jinyoung. It’s a high-concept premise: a life crisis during a zombie apocalypse. A man hides away in the 30 Rock jewelry store where he works while zombies lurk outside. According to Live & In Color, “When he finally gets sick of living in ‘survival mode’ – a state that has plagued him his entire life – he decides to de-zombify himself and find out what it truly means to be alive.”

Readings are Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

Note that the space where the works are performed is small, so make sure you register online ahead of time.

“i know why iris chang died,” 7 p.m. Friday, Bingham Camp, 490 East Haddam Road, Salem; free, donations accepted; to reserve a ticket: liveandincolor.org.

“ZOMBIES, INC.,” 3 p.m. Sat. and 2 p.m. Sun., Bingham Camp, 490 East Haddam Road, Salem; free, donations accepted; to reserve a ticket: liveandincolor.org.