Natasha Stoynoff never thought her life would be turned into a musical – and certainly not for this reason.
As a crime reporter, Stoynoff once covered a serial killer and recalls how the mugshot-like photos of his many female victims gave her shivers. But during the 2016 US presidential election, when she became one of more than a dozen women to accuse Donald Trump of sexual misconduct, she came to identify with them: their lives had been flattened into a square-inch rendering of another female victim.
Now Stoynoff has co-written a play about Trump “forcing his tongue down my throat” and setting her experience to music. It is part of The Pussy Grabber Plays, eight short plays that were due to have their premiere in New York last night, each inspired by a woman who has made allegations against Trump.
The project was dreamed up by the playwright Sharyn Rothstein and the theatrical agent Kate Pines. The two best friends and artistic collaborators had spent countless hours discussing how they could channel everything they felt after the election – the shock, anger, grief – into real social change.
They had observed what Stoynoff described feeling: even after #MeToo, when sexual misconduct allegations against powerful men were finally being taken seriously, Trump’s accusers were still being, as Pines put it, “reduced to photos on a screen or a soundbite or a name”.
Stoynoff’s story, co-written with the playwright and composer Melissa Li, is a retelling of her original experience at Mar-a-Lago. Another play, inspired by Jessica Leeds, who reported in 2016 that Trump groped her on an aircraft more than three decades ago, centres on an interview with Megyn Kelly on NBC’s Today show in which the host repeatedly questions her political motivations. “The impression I had afterwards was like a bucket of cold water,” Leeds said. “I know it was quick and her job is to entertain her audience, but it was one of these occasions where I did not feel very comfortable.”
Another play inspired by Rachel Crooks, who described being forcibly kissed by Trump, explores her shifting perspective as she progressed from the 22-year-old employee in Trump Tower to the woman she is today, a spin that recasts her story as less about Trump and more about growth.
“I certainly get annoyed with being referenced as ‘the Trump accuser’ – that’s not what I want to be known for in my life. But at the same time it allowed me to have a voice that ultimately did lead to the path of running for office and that’s something I probably wouldn’t have thought to do,” said Crooks, who recently stood unsuccessfully for the Ohio state legislature.
Trump has denied allegations of sexual misconduct and at various points accused the women bringing them of lying.
For Stoynoff, the project has been a positive experience: “I liked the fact that it was something I could be part of creating. I also thought it was a good way to humanise the women, to tell a bit about the background of each woman, or something about them that would really bring them to life.”
Pines has her own connection to Trump. She is the daughter of Tony Schwartz, whom Trump threatened with legal action in 2016 after he spoke candidly with the New Yorker about his role in – and remorse over – ghostwriting Trump’s myth-making book, The Art of the Deal.
“I think something my dad did is, despite the legal threats and despite what are risks, he said, ‘I need to tell the truth,’” says Pines. “I think that’s what these women did and I’m so inspired by these women.”
