A play that Stephanie Weymouth wrote as a college student more than a decade ago is finally getting its full staging this weekend in Reading, Massachusetts — a dream her family says she never got to see fulfilled before a drunk driver killed her in February 2024. The production, titled “Linked,” explores the decisions people make, the effects those choices have on others, and what it means to be human, themes Weymouth wove around the backdrop of the September 11 attacks. Its four sold-out performances run from Friday through Sunday, timed to the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
Weymouth was 31 when she was killed as a backseat passenger in a crash on Route 185 near Linden Avenue East in Jersey City, New Jersey, around 12:20 a.m. on February 3, 2024, according to a Hudson County Prosecutor's Office statement reported by Hudson County View. The 2019 Nissan sedan she was riding in struck the rear of a parked, unoccupied tractor-trailer. Hudson County prosecutors charged the driver, Amanda Rivera of Staten Island, with first-degree aggravated manslaughter, second-degree reckless manslaughter, and fourth-degree assault by auto, after a collision investigation determined Rivera was driving while intoxicated — charges that remain allegations unless proven in court.
A Homecoming at the Theater Where She Started
Weymouth's connection to Reading's Hose House Theater goes back to childhood. As reported by Boston 25 News, she first got her theatrical start at the Colonial Chorus Players' home venue at age 11, and it was Mary Ryan — now the director of “Linked” — who convinced her to audition for theater more than two decades ago. The Hose House Theater sits inside a historic former firehouse at 1249 Main Street, according to the Colonial Chorus Players, which is celebrating its 65th anniversary season in 2026 and is currently raising funds to repair the historic building's roof.```
Weymouth grew up in Wilmington, Massachusetts, graduating from Wilmington High School in 2010, and later moved to New Jersey, earning a bachelor's degree in theater arts from Drew University in 2014 and a master's degree in education in 2015, per Daily Voice. She originally wrote and produced “Linked” as an undergraduate at Drew, where the script won college awards, according to her obituary published by Nichols Funeral Home. Boston 25 News reports the play was first performed in 2014 and that Weymouth had dreamed of one day seeing her work reach Broadway, with the talent her father believes could have taken her there.
An Educator Who Built Programs for Young Performers
After college, Weymouth became a theater arts teacher, building a high school theater arts program, per Boston 25 News. She worked as a vocal and arts instructor at the Institute of Music for Children in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and served as a theater arts teacher at People's Preparatory Charter School in Newark, New Jersey, according to Jersey City Patch. Her father, Glenn Weymouth, told Boston 25 News that the cast and crew have worked on “Linked” for over a year to bring it to the stage, and that his daughter would be proud of what the production has become.
“It's about humanity,” Glenn Weymouth said of the play, according to Boston 25 News. The single-act performance runs without an intermission and includes mature themes and language, according to ticketing details on Zeffy, the platform processing all ticket sales — which directly benefit the Stephanie Marie Weymouth Charitable Foundation without taking administrative fees from the nonprofit.
A Foundation Built From Loss
Weymouth's family created the Stephanie Marie Weymouth Charitable Foundation after her death, per Boston 25 News. The foundation, incorporated in 2024 as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit based in Wilmington, Massachusetts, is classified under IRS code A26 for arts councils and agencies, according to GuideStar records, with Glenn Weymouth serving as principal officer. Its stated mission is to foster and develop human compassion through the arts, and in its first two years it awarded more than $25,000 in collegiate and high school scholarships while providing $7,000 in performing arts partnerships, per Boston 25 News.
The foundation has since broadened its focus beyond scholarships to include advocacy against drunk driving. It hosted its primary annual fundraiser, the “Blue Jean Ball,” in April 2026 in Woburn, Massachusetts, featuring live country music and a silent auction, according to Wilmington Apple. The foundation hopes “Linked” will remember those lost on 9/11 while honoring Weymouth's own memory, per Boston 25 News.
All four performances of “Linked” at the Hose House Theater have sold out, Boston 25 News reports. For a family that lost a daughter to a preventable tragedy, watching her decade-old script finally take the stage — on the same weekend the country marks 25 years since the September 11 attacks — closes a circle that began when an 11-year-old girl first stepped into that same firehouse-turned-theater.
