Overview
- Alonso died on Friday after a long illness, his family said and Spanish media reported, ending a creative life that stretched more than 50 years.
- He co-founded and ran the Teatre Villarroel from 1972 into the early 2000s, turning the venue into a launchpad for key Catalan companies and a focal point of the post‑Franco cultural revival.
- Across theatre and television Alonso premiered 78 productions, including 22 original texts and 18 adaptations, which together drew roughly 3.5 million spectators.
- His 1994 staging of La extraña pareja, starring Joan Pera and Paco Morán, ran for over five years with more than 2,000 performances and more than one million viewers, and his 1990 adaptation of Ivá’s Historias de la puta mili reached over half a million spectators.
- Between 1974 and 1994 he worked as a writer, director and producer at RTVE Barcelona, created the children’s show Planeta Imaginari, taught dramaturgy, and his passing is likely to prompt retrospectives and renewed attention to the Villarroel’s role in Catalan cultural life.