In a memorable episode of the old “Star Trek: The Next Generation” TV series, the glib character Q exercises his boundless mystical prowess when he grants the emotionless android Data a moment of laughter. It releases a longtime pent-up desire for the stoic crew member, allowing him a flicker of immeasurable pleasure.

For the many viewers who remember the popular TV show, that moment evoked nearly as much joy in them as it did for the endearing android.

That, in essence, is the magic of laughter, and it is precisely what spurs on the designs of regional playwright Anna Maria Trusky of Mystic.

“I am always trying to elicit a gut response from audiences that will release the urge to laugh. It’s very healing,” Trusky said during an interview at Dev’s American Bistro & Bar on Bank Street, New London.

An accomplished actress and singer as well, this middle-aged Mystic resident, married and with a family of rescue dogs and cats, shares the household with her husband, Paul Camann, also a longtime performer in theater.

Departing from comedy at times, Trusky delivered a poignant Christmas script for the annual Mystic Seaport Lantern Light Tours this past year. She also serves as a performer and interpreter there.

Comedy, however, is where her creative heart lies.

“My brain works in ways where I’m not trying to write jokes; rather, it’s the sort of dialogue that comes forth naturally and just lends itself to humor,” she said, a wry smile punctuating her assessment of her craft.

A former editor for the Bureau of Business Practice that once functioned out of Waterford, Trusky has continued with professional editing services on a freelance basis from her home. Her passion for theater and performing began early, and it is fair to say that her childhood established her as an early world traveler.

“My mother was born in Naples, Italy, and my father was the son of a Pennsylvania coal miner,” she said. “We lived in Naples, just outside of Venice, during my childhood years and traveled from Europe to Massachusetts, then back to Europe again.”

The Trusky family wound up in New York by the time Anna was in third grade. Throughout her public school years, she wrote poetry and was introduced to theater in high school via the drama club.

“It was then and there that I knew where I belonged,” Trusky said. “Since then I’ve been caught up completely in acting, music, and directing.”

It wasn’t until long out of high school, though, that she added playwriting to her repertoire of theatrical skills.

“In the 1990s I began thinking about writing plays, and it was due to seeing friends of mine having their works premiered in the Local Playwrights’ Festival at the Eugene O’Neill Theater,” she said. “I wondered if I could do it too and gave it a try.”

Trusky’s first attempt was a short satire on duck hunters, which introduced her as a clever and witty writer. She followed with a steady string of more satirical works that delighted audiences with outrageous themes and daring premises: a bizarre look at an unprecedented “Amish Bachelor Party,” a spoof on the Titanic called “That Sinking Feeling,” and a hilarious take on an already outrageous film, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”

Trusky’s satire was titled, “My Big Fat Freak Wedding,” in which she played one of the lead roles.

She was also commissioned to write for organizations like Artreach in Norwich, and the former Thames Science Center in New London, along with writing historical works for the City of Norwich.

From simply wondering if playwriting was in her genes, Trusky is now regarded as one of this region’s most respected and sought after writers. She caught the attention of Ira Sakolsky’s Riverway Studios of East Haddam, and was hired to write highly successful scripts for the Essex Steam Train that were performed on board during an actual excursion for paying passengers.

Later on this month, Trusky will participate once again in the Hygienic’s annual Mayfly Playwright’s Festival.

It is her latest theatrical work, though, a full-length tragicomedy titled “A Multitude of Sins,” that most recently grabbed audiences at the LaGrua Center in Stonington Borough. It may prove the most outlandish of all her works.

“I was joking around with friends one night and the word ‘merkin’ came up — known otherwise as a pubic wig,” she said. “Of course I decided I had to write a play about it.”

Trusky did just that, penning an edgy blend of dark humor and moral consequence regarding a pious young wigmaker in 17th century Paris whose life takes an eye-opening turn when he’s introduced to the world of prostitution. The Stonington Players agreed to host a staged reading at the La Grua Center this past November, where a pair of packed houses on two separate nights resulted in a powerful, enthusiastic audience response.

Encouraged by that success, Trusky pitched the play as a full-scale production to the Donald Oat Theater in Norwich. A 2018 production there is forthcoming.

Trusky’s initial testing out of her playwriting skills back in the late 1990s has earned her a vaunted reputation as a versatile writer with an uncanny sense for gauging the emotional make-up of audiences. When asked where she hoped it might all one day lead, she responded, “I would love to ultimately have a ‘Carol Burnett’ style live show professionally where, as creators of the work, we are all having as much fun putting it together as an audience has watching it.”

Given her rare instincts for tapping into that mystical place inside all of us that invokes laughter, one might say that Anna Maria Trusky most certainly contains capabilities in that arena, not unlike the glib ‘Q’ from “Star Trek” drawing laughter even from a stoic android.