widgetizing a hemingway theme

I am using a Hemingway mod called “Hemingway Pearl” which predates widgets but has Hemingway’s widget-like “blocks.” Has anyone widgetized this or a similar theme? Things are organized somewhat differently than in a normal, modern theme and I’m having a bit of a hard time with it. I’ve added the proper code to the functions file, and my WP install now thinks that the theme is widget-ready. But I can’t actually get widgets to work anywhere on the theme… any advice, I would really appreciate.