Are women inherently inferior to men in math and science, as Lawrence Summers, then President of Harvard, suggested several years ago? Writer/performer and recovering mathematician, Gioia De Cari offers a woman’s perspective on this question in Truth Values: One Girl’s Romp Through M.I.T.’s Male Math Maze, an autobiographical solo show coming to Cambridge’s Central Square Theater in a limited engagement this fall. Presented by Underground Railway Theater and directed by Miriam Eusebio, Truth Values plays Thursday, September 10 through Sunday, September 20; press night is set for Friday, September 11 at 8 PM. Selected performances will be followed by conversations with artists and scientists from MIT and Harvard.

In Truth Values: One Girl’s Romp Through M.I.T.’s Male Math Maze, Gioia De Cari shares her experiences in the exotic boys club of higher mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While making the most of the comic absurdity of being pawed by nerds, being asked to serve cookies at a seminar, and retaliating with fashion experiments, Truth Values is also a serious exploration of the world of elite mathematics and the role of women in science.

Truth Values will be featured in the New York International Fringe Festival in August 2009. Gioia’s first solo play, The 9th Envelope, which she wrote and performed, received a rave in the Off-Off-Broadway Review: “Dazzling performance . . . Captivating.” Truth Values, her second solo, recently garnered a Puffin Foundation grant. Development of the show has been in good hands, having originated with the legendary coach Wynn Handman, who discovered and coached John Leguizamo and many other stellar monologuists, as well as solo show expert Matt Hoverman, a Drama Desk nominee, and a collaborator on the award winning solo show, “Bridezilla Strikes Back.”. Director Miriam Eusebio, a member of Lincoln Center Directors Lab, has won two OOBR awards for excellence.

Truth Values plays Thursday, September 10 through Sunday, September 20 at the Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge. Performances are Thursdays at 7:30 PM, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM. Tickets are priced at $35; $25 for seniors; and $20 for students with a valid ID; student rush tickets can be purchased the day of the show for $15 in person at the box office or by calling (617) 576-9278 x213. Tickets can be purchased by calling (866) 811-4111, online at centralsquaretheater.org, or at the Central Square Theater box office. For box office hours, group discounts, and more info call (617) 576-9278 x213.

Compiled from the press release courtesy of Central Square Theater (website | profile | tag archive).

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