Round 2
Truth Values:
One Girl’s Romp ThrougH M.I.T’s Male Math Maze
AFO FEST
TRUTH VALUES:
ONE GIRLS'S ROMP THROUGH M.I.T'S MALE MATH MAZE
Written and Performed by Gioia De Cari
Directed by Miriam Eusebio
October 2011
Created as a response to former Harvard President Lawrence Summer’s now infamous suggestion that women are less represented in the sciences because of innate gender differences,
TRUTH VALUES: ONE GIRLS'S ROMP THROUGH M.I.T'S MALE MATH MAZE
is a true-life tale that offers a humorous, scathing, insightful and ultimately uplifting look at the challenges of being a professional woman in a male-dominated field. Performed barefoot on a bare stage with only a chair and a small table, writer/performer and “recovering mathematician” Gioia De Cari brings to life more than 30 characters in a hilarious and deeply touching performance that has earned raves from critics and stirred audiences to standing ovations. Truth Values is an ideal conversation starter about issues concerning women in math and science.
Press and Awards
“**** [FOUR STARS] De Cari is animated onstage, and inhabits no fewer than 30 roles with gusto.” TimeOut NY
“Funny and insightful…replete with hilarious characters…The story is riveting.”
Curtain Up
“If you see only one play this year about reflexive nonbinary relations, make it this one.”
LA Times
Overall Excellence Award for Best Solo Show
at the New York Fringe
GIOIA DE CARI (performer/writer) The passionately eclectic Gioia De Cari is an actress, playwright, classical singer and “recovering mathematician”. She began her performance career in experimental opera while a teaching fellow in mathematical logic at Harvard. Since then, she has played numerous leading acting roles in theater, commercials and films, including the multi-award-wining film Lower Ease Side Stories, which screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, Slamdance, and many festivals in the U.S and internationally.
Gioia’s first solo play, The 9th Envelope, which she wrote and performed received a rave in OOBR: “De Cari commanded the stage with energy, poise, and rage”. Her second solo, Truth Values: One Girl’s Romp Through MIT’s Male Math Maze, an autobiographical story of her past as a mathematician, was awarded a Puffin Foundation grant. Gioia has studied acting with the legendary teacher and solo show director Wynn Handman, and playwriting with the late Milan Stitt of Carnegie Mellon. After graduating summa cum laude from UC Berkeley, she earned a master of science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. An accomplished singer as well, Gioia released her debut album, Quiet Songs, with her husband, classical guitarist John Olson, in 2006. Gioia is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and The Dramatist Guild of America.