Photo: Courtesy Natasha Stoynoff
On Monday night,Natasha Stoynoffand five other women who have accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault or harassment gathered in a small, packed dinner theater in New York City to see theirstories portrayed onstageinThe Pussy Grabber Plays.
They’d all just met for the first time minutes earlier, in an upstairs dining room at Joe’s Pub in Manhattan.
Stoynoff hugged each as they said hello. “I felt like I’d known each woman forever,” says Stoynoff, a PEOPLE contributor.
“It was like meeting a bunch of sisters,” she says. “We share this common experience. Finally meeting them was something I needed and wanted to do.”
On stage Monday night, actress Lora Lee Gayer, playing Stoynoff, channeled the anger Stoynoff felt — and couldn’t express — at the time of the alleged attack.
“I’m a polite Canadian girl, and I’ve never said ‘f-you’ to anyone, ever,” Stoynoff said before the show. “It’s hard enough for me to speak about this at all. I had to couch it in a song to make it more comfortable for me to retell it.”
RELATED VIDEO: Watch: Natasha Stoynoff Breaks Silence — Accuses Donald Trump of Sexual Assault
The cast ofThe Pussy Grabber Playswith six of the women whose stories inspired the show.Courtesy Jenny Anderson
Reacting to an operatic chorus of “f— you, f— you,” the audience cheered and clapped. At the end of the number, Gayer introduced Stoynoff, who stood from her chair and raised both arms.
“It was totally surreal to see someone play me onstage. It was wild,” Stoynoff tells PEOPLE. “She made me laugh, which was good. That’s the reaction I was hoping to get from the audience, and we did.”
Pines and Rothstein also don’t want the stories of the 19 women who have come forward to be forgotten.
“Courage is contagious,” Pines says, “and I feel like all of these women were so courageous.”
Trump accuser Rachel Crooks (left) with actresses from the play based on story.Courtesy Jenny Anderson
In the audience, Stoynoff sat with withRachel Crooks, who accused Trump of forcibly kissing her on the lips while working in Trump Tower.
After going public with her allegation during the presidential election, Crooks made an unsuccessful run for a seat in the Ohio state legislature.
In contrast to Stoynoff, Crooks participated in her own play: an emotionally jarring reenactment of the alleged 2006 Trump Tower kiss. As she returned to her seat, she and Stoynoff hugged.
“I told her, ‘That was amazing,’ ” Stoynoff says, “[and] that it made me cry.”
Tasha Dixon (left) played herself inThe Pussy Grabber Plays.Courtesy Jenny Anderson
Samantha Holvey, Jill Harth andKarena Virginia, who also have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, also all attended the show.
All proceeds from the evening are going to theNew York Women’s Foundation.
source: people.com
