Carel Alphenaar hails from a musical family from Haarlem. In 1966, he became a dramatist and artistic director for Toneelgroep Centrum. He worked with plays by English ‘kitchen sink’ authors and introduced numerous Dutch playwrights. Later Alphenaar joined Chaim Levano´s experimental theatre group which performed work by Russian absurdists. He was also a creator of plays for debate platform De Balie. Alphenaar has translated plays by e.g. Pinter, George Tabori, Peter Nichols, David Hare, Bond, Molière, Yasmina Reza, Kroetz and Schimmelpfennig. Alphenaar also remained faithful to music. He was a cello player/speaker for the Resistentie Orkest and wrote opera librettos, e.g. for Theo Loevendie´s Johnny en Jones (opening Holland Festival 2001). Last year, he wrote the libretto of Clamavi for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and ballet librettos for the Dutch National Ballet and the Royal Swedish Ballet. He also directed family concerts for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.