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He has written eight plays since then; four comedies recently were compiled into a collection published as “Valley Views” by Offset Paperback.
The Bracken Theatre Company is bringing one of them to life. The company presented a stage reading of “For A Darker Tan” at the Showcase Theatre in Exeter the past weekend.
In the play, three young women, co-owners of a Pittston tanning salon that is facing foreclosure, deal with a series of unusual and sometimes unethical events that just might save them, according to promotional material for the play.
“The thing about this is it has always been a dream of mine to write from an early time in my life,” Blewitt said. “It was really during my Peace Corps days I developed an interest in letter writing.”
He served in Grenada, West Indies, with the Peace Corps from early 1969 to August 1971, teaching English and helping to get a community center and a high school extension built.
He channeled his interest in writing into fiction. He wrote plays because of his love for dialogue.
“I love the way characters speak to one another,” he said. “I just get caught up in that process.”
He said his dialogue is “anthracite brogue,” sprinkled with “dese” and “dose” and a lot of local expressions, such as “haina.”
Blewitt, a psychotherapist for about 35 years and a graduate and undergraduate teacher for about 30, is hoping to some day get his other plays before an audience.
The other works in his published collection are “Divine Reservations,” about an Irish-American priest in the fictional town of Mine Mule, which closely resembles Pittston, who finds himself overwhelmed with work and calls upon a childhood friend for help; “Hematology Lab: The Blues In Red,” about the characters in a hospital lab, and, “The Questions Of A Thousand Dreams: A Comedy In Four Acts,” about the variety of characters in a counseling course for people arrested for DUI.
Blewitt said his work provides inspiration for his work.
“With the kind of work I do, I’m always exposed to really interesting stories,” he said.
jsylvester@timesshamrock.com
