AMANA — Tom Milligan and Deborah Kennedy took a leap of faith, and it’s paying off as life and laughter again are ringing through the former Old Creamery Theatre building — a space vacated, reclaimed and rebranded as the Amana Performing Arts Center with a mission of restoring a rich tradition to the Amana Colonies.

The couple, who live in West Amana, have a long history with the building, stretching back to their Old Creamery days onstage and behind the scenes. It’s where they met in 2005, which led to marriage in 2008.

Now they’ve become the resident theater company in the building, at 39 38th Ave. in Amana, with TKM (Team Kennedy Milligan) Theatrical Productions. They formed the company in 2014 and it acquired nonprofit status in 2022, when they began using the vacant theater building.

They’ve not only been staging their own shows, but have expanded by bringing in guest productions; holding special events like a recent all-ages Halloween party; and offering educational activities including summer camps in the region.

Kennedy, 57, and Milligan, 74, aren’t getting rich off their endeavors, but that’s not the point. They’re investing their ticket proceeds in paying the actors, not themselves; paying rent, performance rights, royalties and printing costs; and returning a tradition to the Amanas and its visitors.

Milligan continues to direct plays for Clear Creek Amana High School in Tiffin and take his one-man shows about historical figures on the road, and Kennedy serves as the tasting room manager and events coordinator for Ackerman Winery in Amana.

The stage remains their calling, unfolding in a space they know well.

#placement_665573_0_i{width:100%;margin:0 auto;}

“Our mission is to bring more theater back to the Amana Colonies,” Kennedy said. “We always saw the specialness of that space, and of course, we were very saddened when the Creamery closed its doors. And being in the area, we just thought, well, let’s do what we can to serve the community and also support other artists.”

Group effort

The couple haven’t acted alone. They continue to work in collaboration with the Amana Society Inc., which reclaimed the building’s ownership after the Old Creamery Theatre closed in February 2022.

That not-for-profit professional theater troupe was founded in Garrison in 1971 and relocated in the former Amana Colonies Welcome Center in 1988, but was unable to remain financially viable after the pandemic struck.

According to previous Gazette reports, the Old Creamery Theatre suspended operations and terminated its staff, except for the general manager, on July 1, 2020. Traveling roadshows were staged in fall 2021, but didn’t generate enough funding for the theater troupe to resume producing its own shows or pay for utilities and upkeep.

Once the Old Creamery vacated the premises, community members began imagining a new life for the building.

“A group of people got together after the word was out that the Creamery was closing in the Amana area,” Milligan said. “Interested parties were wondering, well, what do we do now with the building, and how can we replace that element that’s been lost? And through several meetings and ideas and suggestions, it became evident that if somebody was going to have to do it, it was going to be Deb and I.”

They already had been producing events and kid camps at Brooklyn’s restored opera house, about 30 miles west of Amana.

At a glance

What: TKM Theatrical Productions

Home theater: Amana Performing Arts Center, 39 38th Ave., Amana

Details: tkmtheatricalproductions.com

Events: tkmtheatricalproductions.com/courses

The couple’s next step was to gather a board of directors and apply for not-for-profit status for TKM. That would allow them to become a business, instead of continuing as freelancers.

“When we’re dealing with the Amana Society and other businesses in town, it just gives us that legitimacy of, ‘We’re here now,’ ” Milligan said.

Other uses

But theater isn’t the only show in town. The Amana Society also rents out the building for corporate meetings, seminars, graduation parties, baby showers, dance recitals, Amana Society events and other community functions, like a church group that meets there.

The reopening and rebranding have been “very exciting,” said Jamie Wolter of Homestead, manager of the Performing Arts Center and the Amana RV Park & Events Center across the street. “It’s bred new life into the creative scene in Amana. …

“We just needed something new, and Tom and Deb bringing TKM productions into the Performing Arts Center has been amazing.”

Now 33, Wolter feels like she’s come full circle. She performed in the Old Creamery’s production of “Nuncrackers” at age 10, sharing the stage with Kennedy and with Marcia Hughes of Cedar Rapids, a familiar face on the Corridor theater scene, including four TKM shows in Amana. And Milligan directed it, Hughes said.

The Amana Society also has invested in equipment and amenities, replacing the sound and light boards, as well as the stage lights the Old Creamery said it donated to schools and charities.

“The Amana Society has a little bit more money in the bank than some other groups do,” Wolter said, “and we wanted to put it back into the theater to make sure that it was a usable, working theater, and it didn’t just sit there, because it’s such a great facility.

“We luckily went to a local company,” she said. “Sound Concepts has really helped us, and (owner Marvin Smejkal) has been really great. Dennis Hahn is our local maintenance guy for the Amana Society, and he’s done so much in that building, he deserves a big shout out to him and his team.

“It was just a goal of the Amana Society to get it back to where it used to be and make it hopefully even a little bit better,” she said, noting that a new, large screen and projector recently have been installed, which will enhance the amenities for events like seminars.

“Every year we try to do new improvements, to make it really attractive for big touring groups or corporate groups to come in,” she added, declining to say how much money the Amana Society has invested, leaving it at “quite a bit.”

Kennedy noted that TKM pays $15 a day for rehearsals, which helps cover utilities, then for the show weekends it pays $500. Other fees include $100 to use the courtyard and $250 to use the lobby, “so it’s very reasonable,” she said, and there is a $100 fee for the outside shows TKM presents in the space. Wolter handles the bookings for events not under the TKM umbrella.

Leaping forward

Audiences and bus groups are noticing and coming back, which means not just an uptick in ticket sales but often a community business boost with a meal in an Amana restaurant, shopping in the Colonies and perhaps an overnight stay.

“TKM really has been the main pillar of attraction to the theater,” Wolter said, and as the 2024 season winds down, she added, “We’re definitely looking forward to their Christmas shows.”

This year’s offering is the premiere of “A Murder for Christmas,” by Des Moines playwright Karen Schaeffer and her son, Alex, onstage Dec. 6 to 8 and 13 to 15.

“We get calls all the time asking, ‘What are the dates? What are the weekends that you’re available?’ So that’ll be fun,” Wolter said.

Next year’s December show will be “Holiday Fruitcake,” by Jonesy McElroy. He’s an Old Creamery alum who worked in film and television in Los Angeles for nearly 20 years, and has returned to create some new projects in the Amana space.

Looking ahead, Kennedy and Milligan are ready take another leap of faith for 2025, bringing their first full-fledged musical, “Pump Boys and Dinettes,” to the Amana stage Aug. 22 to 24.

TKM has come a long way since producing its first show in the Performing Arts Center. Milligan feared they’d have to rely on the auditorium’s overhead lights for “Weekend Comedy,” performed May 20 and 21, 2022.

“It really was a leap of faith, because we did not have lights or sound. And so we’re also like, well, if we can’t get the lights to work, then it’s going to be just the fluorescents that are above us in the ceiling, versus theater lights,” Kennedy said. “It was kind of terrifying going into that very first production.”

TKM had just staged that show in Brooklyn a week or two before the Old Creamery announced its closure.

“The Amana Society really wanted to get something in the building, because I felt like the community felt the loss for years,” Kennedy said, “and so they were very anxious and very eager to help us however we needed to get that first production in there and get things rolling and get things started. … Once we decided OK, this space is going to be used for this, they were like, ‘Can you do it next month?’ ”

And they did manage to get some lights up for the show.

TKM has been building steam ever since then, expanding productions and educational offerings.

They’re still producing mostly comedies, but they’ve presented other shows that have focused on historical, contemporary or classical themes, like pairing one-act plays about Ding Darling and Theodore Roosevelt in September; Kennedy’s original script, “It’s a Girl Thing: Life from a Feminine Perspective,” which mixed humor with drama, onstage Nov. 1 to 3; followed the next Saturday by “The Gull,” a one-person adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s 1896 play “The Seagull.”

Hughes, 62, who was in “A Girl Thing” and is in rehearsals for “A Murder for Christmas,” is thrilled to have another space in which to perform in the Corridor, as well as draw audiences to the region.

“I’ve appreciated that TKM has been offering opportunities that fit my age group,” she said, adding that more roles are available for men over age 50 than for women. “So I’ve appreciated the opportunities from that perspective, and they’re fun. I like the cast. I love Tom and Deb. I love the audiences down there. They have been incredibly receptive and gone along for each journey with great joy. It’s just been a good time. …

“The opportunity to have live theater back in Amana is really special,” Hughes said. “It’s been a special gift as an actor, and from what I’ve heard from the audiences that I have had in front of me, it’s very important to that region.”

Comments: (319) 368-8508; [email protected]