Finally It Happens - Alaina Hammond

Description

Two old friends—one married, one engaged—enter a hotel room. Their intentions are entirely above board and non-sexual in nature. Nevertheless, a huge problem presents itself, for infidelity is far from humanity’s greatest threat.

Praise

“Alaina Hammond is an amazing writer who gets to the nitty gritty of human interactions. Finally It Happens is a poignant look of two people confronting their complicated relationship and what the future may hold. Alaina's portrayal of Albert and Melissa makes you want to simultaneously cry and punch a wall (often during a single sentence). Anything Alaina writes should be on display to a world that needs a wakeup call.”

          —Michael Hagins
              Winner of New York Shakespeare's Best Solo Award, 2025.
              Winner of Best Director, Best Playwright and Best Show for As
              You Wish It, Northeastern Pennsylvania Theatre Alliance,
              2021

“Finally it Happens is Alaina Hammond’s incisive, high-stakes play about getting closure in a world gone a little crazy. Funny, tense and knotty, Finally It Happens has more than a few surprises, both for the heart and the mind.”

          —Vincent Marano
             Playwright of award-winning Lights Narrow and Confirmation.
             Two time BRIO award winner

“In Finally It Happens, a woman and a man meet in his hotel room, for non-nefarious reasons. Having known each other since their tender teen years, one is married, the other engaged. Their talk is initially warm and calm, but takes a shocking turn when interrupted by outside forces. Alaina Hammond is adept at exploring the grey areas of feelings and relationships, brilliantly depicting a conversation decades in the making.”

          —Ed Malin, MSEd.
              Artistic Director of Temerity Theatre CO.  Playwright of Generic
             Magic Realism

“I love this simple one-act comedy! Two old friends—in their thirties—meet in a hotel room. The air in the room is tinged with regret, and desire, too: I love Alaina Hammond's smart, witty touch with personal histories, as her characters talk about theirs. I couldn't help but identify with both characters, wishing them well in equal amounts.”

          —Peter Gould, Ph.D.
              Author of Write Naked (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux), Burnt
             Toast (Alfred A. Knopf) and Horse-Drawn Yogurt (Green
             Writers Press)

“Alaina Hammond’s short plays are an intriguing blend of contemporary touchstones and quirky humor with a shot of early Theater of the Absurd. They can stand alone, like little windows into ‘Did I hear that right?’ reality, or they can be collected into a wonderful evening of eavesdropping on a world in which threads of conversation lead to spools of tangled relationships and extracted identities.”

          —Eric Bass, Co-Founder of Sandglass Theater

“Old friends Melissa and Albert reunite to reminisce about their friendship and marriages, only to discover it may be too late for both of them. An enthralling, suspenseful warning that a lot can change in five minutes.”

          —Rebecca Carr
              Teaching Fellow in European Studies, Trinity College Dublin

About the Playwright

Alaina Hammond is a poet, playwright, fiction writer, and visual artist. Over fifty of her original plays have been produced off-off Broadway. In 2025, she received Pushcart Prize nominations for “Jane Passes The Bar Exam,” “To Serve In Retail Hell,” “As Numb As I Am,” and “Why I Said What I Said To The Bartender,” and Best Microfiction nominations for “Muffin Or Something” and “Wigless.” She is the author of the novelette Jillian, Formerly Known as Frog Girl, and lives in California with her husband and son.