Emmy winner Lena Waithe could have taken her debut play to bigger, glitzier cities. But those locations don’t have Stevie Walker-Webb.

“The truth is Stevie is the person I wanted to collaborate with,” Waithe said with her hand on top of the Baltimore Center Stage artistic director’s hand on Thursday.

On Feb. 12, the world premiere of “trinity,” Waithe’s playwriting and stage acting debut, opens at the Mount Vernon theater. Given her Hollywood star power as an actor, writer and producer — Waithe is the first Black woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing (for “Master of None” in 2017) — anticipation to see the multi-hyphenate tackle a new medium is building.

Waithe, who starred in “Westworld” and created the Showtime series “The Chi,” said TV and film can feel constraining. As a Black female creative, the 41-year-old added that Hollywood is not “welcoming us with open arms” at the moment. Waithe, a longtime admirer of theater, said it was finally time to explore the freedom of a stage production.

“There’s no rules. There’s no ceiling,” she said. “There’s nothing you cannot do, because in theater you have to use your imagination.”

Imagination plays a major role in “trinity.” The play centers on three characters named A (Waithe), B (Courtney Sauls) and C (Megalyn Echikunwoke) who are confined to a single room. What begins as playful role-playing turns into a deeper existential dive, Waithe said, about “the three very dominant relationships in our lives”: the ones with our parents, friends and romantic partners.

“It’s about humanity. It’s about matters of the heart,” Waithe said. “It’s about questions of existence.”

Viewers will be immediately transported, as the show opens in outer space while Stevie Wonder’s “If It’s Magic” plays, she said. Lights and projections transform the all-white stage into a striking sandbox for the actors to play in.

Waithe emphasized that the play’s story is intentionally universal. While the three leads are Black women, the play never mentions race and can work with actors of all backgrounds, regardless of gender or sexuality.

“I wanted to remove that so we could see each other’s humanity rather than how we decide to identify ourselves in society,” Waithe said.

Waithe is confident “trinity” will resonate with Baltimore audiences. She helped bring “The Peculiar Patriot,” Liza Jessie Peterson’s one-person play about mass incarceration in America, to Center Stage last fall. As a Chicago native, she feels a kinship to Baltimore, calling it a “very communal city.”

“It feels like another home, as opposed to far from it,” she said. “Folks in Baltimore are engaged in politics. They know what’s going on. You can’t pull one over on them, you know?”

As Hollywood heavy hitters like Waithe and “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner choose to launch plays at Center Stage with Walker-Webb, the artistic director said the theater world, and beyond, is paying closer attention to Charm City.

“It signals to the country, to the world, that Baltimore is a serious cultural mecca,” said Walker-Webb, who’s been Center Stage’s artistic director since 2023.

“trinity,” which runs through March 8, is just the start for Waithe, who said it’s only the first play in a trilogy. So will the other two editions debut in Baltimore as well?

“Well, you know, he’s going to be directing them,” Waithe said, smiling and pointing to her director.