Truth Values: One Girl's Romp Through MIT's Male Math Maze

To put it mildly, former Harvard University president Lawrence H. Summers seems an unlikely muse for a one-woman show.

But without his controversial 2005 remarks about women in science, Gioia De Cari might never have finished “Truth Values: One Girl’s Romp Through MIT’s Male Math Maze,’’ an acclaimed comedy that kicks off Thursday at the Central Square Theater.

An honors graduate of the University of California-Berkeley, De Cari got her master’s in mathematics from MIT in 1988 but quit while working toward her doctorate. Years later, as an accomplished actress and singer, she began writing a play to help her untangle the reasons why.

“It was sort of the juicy question for me as a writer: What the heck happened there?’’ she says.

She kept putting it away unfinished, though. “I kind of got cold feet,’’ De Cari explains. “I was reading things about MIT being so wonderful about making these gestures to have more equality for women, and then I got all embarrassed about the aspect of my story that has to do with women’s issues. I thought, that’s passé, I’m embarrassed now, I don’t know if I even want to talk about this. But then Larry Summers opened his mouth.’’

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http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2009/09/04/for_gioia_de_cari_larry_summers_made_her_play/

I remember wanting to kick ol' Larry's butt after his stupid comments.