(Radio Iowa) – A longtime venue for live theater performances in eastern Iowa has shut its doors for good. After more than 50 years of staging shows, a letter posted on the Old Creamery Theatre website says the facility in Amana has permanently closed. The letter blames “financial pressures amid the COVID-19 pandemic.”

What was billed as Iowa’s Premiere Professional Theatre Company shut down temporarily in March of 2020 and reopened for roadshows in the fall and winter of 2021. While there was some federal funding injected, it wasn’t enough to keep the theater afloat. The venue opened in 1971 in Garrison before moving to Amana.