Discussion Panelists

LEN BERKMAN is the Anne Hesseltine Hoyt Chair Professor of Theatre at Smith College, has taught dramatic literature and playwriting for over 56 years.  Director of Smith's MFA Theatre program, Len has received multiple distinguished teaching awards and Fulbright Grants.  As dramaturg, he has assisted the development of over 600 plays and productions at Sundance Institute, Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Rep, NY Stage & Film Co., Epic Theater Ensemble, People's Light. U. Iowa's annual May Festivals, and other new-play hotbeds. His own plays, essays, and memoirs appear in an array of books and journals.  A recurrent Guest Professor/Artist at U. Hamburg, Germany, Len holds an M.F.A. and Doctorate from the Yale School of Drama.

JOYCE BERKMAN is a Professor of History Emerita at the University of Massachusetts, taught from 1965-2014 as well as in Canada and Germany, and earned the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award, its Distinguished Academic Outreach Award, a US Fulbright, among other awards. She helped found the University and Five College Women’s Studies programs and launched courses on US, British, and European women’s history, African American women’s history, as well as seminars in the history of Reproductive Rights, Oral History, Autobiography, History and Fiction. Her published scholarship spans multiple disciplines. A public historian, she works with playwrights and theaters in play development. Her leading secondary interest is in music theory and piano performance.

MELENIE FREEDOM FLYNN is an author, actor, and teacher. A graduate of the MFA Acting Program at California Institute of the Arts, she has performed in theatres across the country, including Alabama Story at the Majestic. Her writing has been supported by fellowships from MacDowell, Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Elizabeth George Foundation, and the Edith Wharton & Straw Dog Writers Guild Writing Residency. Melenie leads writing workshops at Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop and provides coaching and editorial services for writers. She lives in Easthampton, Massachusetts and is a proud member of Straw Dog Writers Guild. meleniefreedomflynn.com

MARTIN (MARTY) BARON retired at the end of February 2021, after eight-plus years as executive editor of The Washington Post. News staffs under his leadership have won 18 Pulitzer Prizes. The Post won 11 Pulitzers for coverage during his tenure that included the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and investigations of the National Security Agency and the presidential campaign of Donald Trump. While he was top editor of The Boston Globe, it won six Pulitzer Prizes, including for its investigation into the Catholic Church’s concealment of clergy sex abuse. That coverage was portrayed in the Academy Award-winning movie Spotlight. While editor of The Miami Herald, the paper won a Pulitzer for its coverage of the raid to recover Elián González, the Cuban boy at the center of a fierce custody dispute. His book, Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post was released in October 2023.

DAVE MADSEN — 2025 marks Dave Madsen's 55th year in broadcasting and 33rd anniversary with Western Mass News. Madsen came to Western Mass News in 1992 after twelve years with WWLP-TV. He began his broadcasting career in 1970 with WMAS in Springfield. Later that year he began a nine-year association with WHMP Radio in Northampton. Madsen retired from anchoring the evening news in August 2019. He now hosts the Sunday morning news and information program, “Western Mass News: Getting Answers”. In 2011, Madsen was inducted into the New England Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Science's Silver Circle for his accomplishments in broadcasting and his work in the community. In September 2017, Madsen became the first television broadcaster from Western Mass to be inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Dave and his wife Linda are longtime subscribers to the Majestic Theater. His voice has also been heard in a number of Majestic productions.

SKIP SHEA is an Emmy-nominated producer and award-winning filmmaker, writer, artist and performer from Uxbridge, Massachusetts. He wrote and performed a one-man show “Catholic (Surviving Abuse & Other Dead End Roads)” about his journey as a survivor of clergy sexual abuse. He has three feature-length movies Trinity, Seeds, and Florence, all of which touch on the same theme of clergy sexual abuse. Shea is also the executive director of the Shawna E. Shea Memorial Foundation, Inc., (Shawna Foundation), a 501(c)(3) arts named after his daughter who passed away in 1999 at the age of 16.

NANCY EVE COHEN (Bio coming soon)