Thank you Mr. Robert C.S. Downs

Seven years ago, I wrote and adapted White Mama after completing the playscript I got a chance to email Robert Downs to adapt the rights and permission to turn his novel into a stage play. Luckily, he gave me the approval to adapt his novel to a play and put it into production.

If already you know the story then you know or if you would like to know the story, look at my article story:

I had plans for 2024 to put it in production until now 2023 I found out the most heartbreaking news through social media that Robert C.S. Downs passed away two months ago. I was completely heartbroken that I never got a chance to present the stage production and guilty that I had failed the man's work. I had tried everything to put it into production, submitting it to every theatre, but unfortunately, theatres are interested in new original works instead of adaptations and want theatre experience, and I didn’t have enough funds to produce and direct the play on my own. The good part was it was selected for the New York Theatre Winter Festival in 2018. It was the most exciting moment of my life even for Robert and actor Ernest Harden Jr. who portrayed BT Williamson in the 1989 television adaptation film were excited about White Mama coming to the New York festival. Downs even gave me the festival fee for the festival until I had to cancel the festival due to low funds and a family emergency and the fee is nonrefundable. I wish I could have informed him I was disappointed in myself. During 2020, I had plans to bring White Mama to the stage this time until covid took over and shut down everything i tried to do a virtual staged reading but canceled again due to technical difficulties. But, to be honest, I don't want to stop White Mama it was the first stage play I had ever written and it made me feel like I could write anything. After I read the novel, I thought of the idea of turning it into a stageplay and I wanted to present the beautiful unlikely friendship of a black teen boy and an elderly white woman it felt to me like it was meant for the stage.

Overall, Downs lived a wonderful life writing novels and mentoring young writers at the college he teaches at even though I never got a chance to meet him. I would like to say, Mr. Robert Downs, thank you for all your work. I am so sorry I failed you I promise I will put white mama in production not to honor the movie or the book but to honor you. Thank you!

Robert C.S. Downs Obituary from Legacy.com

Robert C. S. Downs of Boalsburg, PA passed away peacefully on September 22, 2023, at Mount Nittany Medical Center under UPMC Hospice Care with loving family at his side. Bob was born in Chicago, Illinois on November 23, 1937, to Norbert and Laura Downs. He was a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Bob taught at Hunter College of the City of New York in the 1960's. He was a professor at Colby-Sawyer College in the 1970's before teaching in and becoming Director of the MFA program at the University of Arizona. In the 1980's he became Director of the MFA program at Penn State University and retired from there as Distinguished Professor Emeritus.

Bob published seven novels, one collection of short stories, and wrote the screenplay for the CBS-Television production of "White Mama," which starred Bette Davis. Three of his novels have been produced for television, one each by NBC, CBS, and the BBC, the last of which won five British Academy Awards and was voted Best Television Film of the year in Great Britain in 1981. His awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship and an NAACP Image Award nomination.

Bob was preceded in death by his brother Lawrence. He is survived by his wife Barbara Downs and his daughters, Susan Laura Downs and Christina Downs Mills, and her husband Mark. Bob was a devoted uncle to nephews Christopher Downs and his children Lancy and Michael (Nicky), and to William Rosselli Del Turco and his wife Lisa and sons Henry, Bonaccorso, and Luca, and to his niece Bethany Downs. He was close to his brother-in-law Thomas Lewry and his wife Stephanie and their four children Natasha Beauvais, Ben Lewry, David Lewry, and Claudia McDermott. Bob mentored many students in his career and enjoyed hearing from them when they published and established writing careers or just wanted to reconnect.

A lifelong athlete, Bob loved football, rugby, track, and golf. He treasured his golf friends and their meetings and trips in his senior years. A college sports fan, Bob would make sure life included viewing games and events at every possible opportunity.

If you want to read the excerpts from my playscript from Act I :

Act II:

List of Robert's Books: