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 * Billy McEntee
    * home
    * about
    * arts journalism
    * scripts and screenplays
    * murder mysteries
    * press
    * contact

 * ☰

 * home
 * about
 * arts journalism
 * scripts and screenplays
 * murder mysteries
 * press
 * contact

Writer, Editor, Queer Storyteller
About Me
Say Hi
About
My name is Billy McEntee and I'm the Theater Editor at The Brooklyn Rail and a
freelance writer and artist.

At the Rail, I write essays analyzing new plays, particularly rigorous, nuanced
works that have shorter runs and as such many not receive as much coverage.
These responses aims to crack open a work and reveal its core to audiences so we
can better understand and discuss the intention of a play and place in a dynamic
theatrical ecosystem. I also founded Rail Shorts, which commissions playwrights
to write short works accompanied by original illustrations. I was the inaugural
2022/23 Terry Helbing Fellow for the American Theatre Critics Association, and
I've written for The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Vanity Fair,
Travel + Leisure, American Theatre, them, Observer, and Playbill.

My co-created play The Voices in Your Head sold out its run at St. Lydia's and
was, per Helen Shaw, "warm, witty, bonkers." Another piece, Geraldine Realigned
Drives from Gay Place to Gay Place and You're in the Car Too, premiered at The
Brick in 2023 and will return there in 2024.

I've also taught with The School of The New York Times and the Kennedy Center
and am an alumnus of the O'Neill's National Critics Institute.


Arts Journalism
By Article
By Outlet
Theater
With Two Pulitzers to Her Name, Lynn Nottage Knows She’s Here for the Longer
Journey
Vanity Fair
Off-Broadway's Bathrooms: A Ranked Love Letter
Observer
Will Arbery: In Pursuit of the Urgently Inexplicable
The Brooklyn Rail
Film
‘Junebug’ is still defined by its North-South divisions and — now more than ever
— the compassion that transcends them
The Washington Post
The Writer Behind Both of Glenn Close’s “Breathtaking” Performances This Year
Vanity Fair
In 'Aftersun,' a Father's Struggle Has Queer Resonance
them
TV
How Jeff Hiller Smashed Gay TV Tropes on HBO’s Somebody Somewhere
them
Remembering Three TV Actors Who Queered Masculinity
them
‘Girls’ Always Knew What it Was Doing
Primetimer
Food and Travel
Colorado's Ghost Towns Are Taking Over Instagram Thanks to Its Booming Wine
Scene, Chic Bars, and Charming Hotels
Travel and Leisure
At Philomena’s, Cozy Vibes, Crushable Drinks, and Infused Ice
Greenpointers
Meet Medellín: South America's Undersung Queer Mecca
EDGE
Queer Culture
40 Years Later: Stigma and Progress Collide Since the Onset of the AIDS Crisis
EDGE
These Iconic TV Couples Are Gay in My Mind
them
Is the Fragrance Industry Finally Breaking the Gender Binary?
EDGE
Books
Harry Potter and the Relentless Queerbaiting: Why Won’t the Magical Closet Be
Unlocked?
NewNowNext
For author Andrew Sean Greer, “Travel is Really Awkward — and I Find That Funny”
San Francisco Chronicle
Meet Queer Working Class Hero, Booker Award-Winning Novelist Douglas Stuart
EDGE
Faith
A Place for All at St. Lydia’s: Brooklyn’s Progressive Church Gem
Brooklyn Magazine
"You Are Very Welcome Here": The Queer Internet, and My Church
them
Music and Podcasts
All Roads (And Genres) Lead To TIGUE
The Brooklyn Rail
Queers Profit Off of Straights’ Sperm in ‘Hot White Heist’
Observer

Scripts and Screenplays
The Voices in Your Head
The Voices in Your Head
Co-created by Grier Mathiot and Billy McEntee
Directed by Ryan Dobrin


Featuring Christian Caro, Marcia DeBonis*, Patrick Foley*, Vanessa Kai*, Tom
Mezger*, Daphne Overbeck, Erin Treadway*, and Jehan O. Young* These actors
appeared courtesy of Actors Equity Association.
Description
A support group for people who share a bizarre bond holds a meeting. An
hour-long site-specific experience, The Voices in Your Head sold out its
three-week run at St. Lydia's in Brooklyn in January 2024.
Press
“Warm, witty, bonkers. If you need a morsel of sweet weirdness, acted by
top-shelf Off-Off megastars, try Grier Mathiot and Billy McEntee’s The Voices in
Your Head.” —Helen Shaw, The New Yorker theater critic


“Wonderful. Grier Mathiot and Billy McEntee’s smart, darkly witty new work doles
out information carefully; director Ryan Dobrin has many brilliant little
touches.” —Joey Sims, No Proscenium

“A one-of-a-kind experience and a hilarious dark comedy. If you are a fan of
immersive theatre, do anything you can to get a ticket; it definitely is full of
weird joy.” —Nolan Boggess, Theatrely
Geraldine Realigned Drives from Gay Place to Gay Place and You're in the Car Too
Geraldine Realigned Drives from Gay Place to Gay Place and You're in the Car Too
Created by Cam Cronin and Billy McEntee
Directed by Ryan Dobrin

Productions
The Brick Theater (2023 and 2024)

Press
A preview in Brooklyn Magazine and The Broadway Blog


Description
See America’s great gayborhoods with Geraldine Realigned in 60 minutes flat!
Should anything go awry, Geraldine’s alter ego — a consultant named Cam, far
less zany — will be on hand to course correct, and maybe chitchat about identity
formation. Buckle up for a queer road trip that’s one helluva tour (de force).


Lindsay Lindsey Lyndsey
Lindsay Lindsey Lyndsey
Written and produced by Billy McEntee
Directed by Claire Mathiot
Featuring Cam Cronin, Daphne Overbeck, and Dan Kuan Peeples

Description
Three childhood friends reunite and are unmoored — and disarmed — by each
other's developed sense of identity. Lindsay Lindsey Lyndsey is a new short film
about queer, triangular friendship and how who we are is both individually and
communally informed. The film premieres in 2022.

Selections
Chelsea Film Festival
Palm Springs LGBTQ Film Festival
Los Angeles Lift Off Film Festival
 * Cory and Smin’s Love Conquers the Earth
 * Cory and Smin’s Love Conquers the Earth
   Written by Billy McEntee
   Directed by Charles Quittner
   
   Productions
   Boscoe Barles Backyard Center for the Performing Arts (2020)
   Kingsland Flowers (2021)
   Smiling Hogshead Ranch (2021)*
   
   *recipient of a grant from the Queens Arts Council
   
   Press
   A preview in Time Out New York
   “An incredible queer masterpiece” —Sidewalkkilla
   “Lovely, ephemeral, intimate” —Token Theatre Friends
   
   Description
   A few years from now, when cities have banned gas-fueled cars and drag queens
   host gardening clubs, two enamored teens on opposite sides of the country
   struggle to meet in the middle: Cory wants a relationship, Smin wants a
   revolution. Each is difficult to attain when there are college essays and
   manifestos to write, mom's shopping to do, and maybe a planet to save.
   Anthemic and bawdy, Cory and Smin's Love Conquers the Earth is a queer
   "eco-medy" giving Zoomers, Boomers, and everyone in between a future to fear
   — or believe in.
   
   Cast
   Three actors (two teenagers, one in their 30s+ — race and gender flexible)

Murder Mysteries

Have fun with your friends while stabbing them in the back: introducing Kill
Your Friends, bespoke murder mysteries for parties, get-togethers, and
gatherings of all kinds! Working with individual clients, Billy crafts a
three-act evening, guidebooks, and character sheets based on the party's vibe
and needs. Previous murder mystery settings have included White Lotus: Thailand,
an upstate farmer's market, and a ten-year cast reunion for a failed CW show,
amongst others. Where do you want to Kill Your Friends? Murder mysteries cost
$25 per head — visit the Contact page to get in touch!
Awards and Press
 * Press for Geraldine Realigned Features in Brooklyn Magazine and The Broadway
   Blog
 * Awards for Lindsay Lindsey Lyndsey
   Best Short Screenplay — LGBTQ Unbordered International Film Festival
   Best Short Screenplay — Paris Play Film Festival
   Honorable Mention — Santa Barbara International Film Festival
 * Grants
   Inaugural Terry Helbing Fellow for the American Theatre Critics Association
   Queens Arts Council grant for presenting an outdoor theatrical experience for
   Queens residents (August 2021, for the play Cory and Smin’s Love Conquers the
   Earth, presented at Smiling Hogshead Ranch, one of New York City’s largest
   community gardens)
   Colorado Tourism Office grant to investigate the role of COVID and Instagram
   on tourism in Colorado mountain towns (June 2021, article written for Travel
   + Leisure)
 * Press for Cory and Smin’s Love Conquers the Earth
   A preview article in Time Out New York
   A review in Token Theatre Friends
   A review in Transitions
   An illustration of the play by Bill Roundy for The Brooklyn Paper
   An announcement in BroadwayWorld

Contact
Billy is a freelance writer available for hire. He writes criticism, company
blogs and website copy, and queer scripts.

Get in touch at williamjude92 [at] gmail [dot] com.

All photos by Jake White.