When the Latvian stage still had neither a permanent home nor a settled habit, Ādolfs Alunāns was born in Jelgava on 11 October 1848. His grandfather Jūliuss Felke introduced him to the world of the Jelgava German Theatre, but Alunāns later translated that experience onto the Latvian stage: he led the Riga Latvian Society Theatre, formed the first permanent Latvian acting troupe, wrote plays, performed comic roles, and let the Latvian language sound from the stage as public, self-confident art.

Ādolfs Alunāns belonged to the nineteenth-century Latvian cultural generation that turned society evenings and amateur performances into permanent national art institutions. His work at the Riga Latvian Theatre helped theatre become not only entertainment, but also a school of Latvian language and public self-awareness.