Back when servicers were calling him daily about his overdue student loan payments, Aaron Calafato took a job recruiting students – or more accurately, their student loan dollars – to a for-profit university.

He immediately recognized the irony of trying to pay down his loans by encouraging others to load up on student debt.

It took a bit longer to see the comedic potential.

These days, the Northeast Ohio native tours the country performing “For Profit,” a one-man show based on his work at a college that sold education the way boiler rooms sell warranties.

He’s planned stops next month at Kent State and at his alma mater, Bowling Green.

The show's topic is certainly timely.

Student loan debt has soared to $1.2 trillion, pushing it past all other types of consumer debt except mortgages. People are clearly struggling with repayment. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reports a third of student borrowers have sought to delay or lower their loan payments.

For-profit colleges educate only about 13 percent of the nation's students, but those students borrow more heavily than others and they account for almost half the student loans that go into default, according to the Project on Student Debt.

Calafato's "For-Profit" looks at how higher ed is sold from the perspective of a salesman. The one-man show follows the semi-autobiographical travails of "Aaron," who's initially delighted to be hired as an "academic advisor," both for the steady paycheck and the chance to show relatives skeptical of his career in the arts that he has at last found steady work.

Aaron’s belief that his new career involves helping people is quickly put to rest by his employer's clear directive that the job is all about sales. Prospective students are referred to as “leads,” and Aaron’s primary duty is to cajole people in person or harangue them by phone until they agree to look past the price tag and enroll.

“If you fall behind on your calls a … red flag flashes on your computer. Then an email is sent to all faculty and staff to illustrate how ineffective you are,” Aaron tells the audience.

Upcoming performances

7 p.m. Sept. 4, Kent State University Kiva

Sept. 14, Bowling Green State University, details TBA

“For Profit” skewers the college for the cynicism that lurks behind even seemingly compassionate acts. When the college creates care packages for troops in Afghanistan, it uses school brochures as packing material in hopes discharged service members will march to campus with their GI education money. (It's not for nothing that Holly Petraeus of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently testified to Congress that "

for-profit colleges ... see service members as nothing more than dollar signs in uniform.") some ... see service members as nothing more than dollar signs in uniform.")

Keenly aware of his dependence on his steady paycheck, Aaron stews silently through staff meetings where advisors belittle low-income applicants struggling to improve their lives. Over time, encounters with co-workers, potential students and community advocates make it harder for Aaron to check his conscience at the door.

Ultimately, Aaron must make a choice – and it’s to Calafato’s credit as a writer that this pivotal scene in “For Profit” steers clear of Hollywood-inspired tidiness and instead captures some of the messy conflict of real life.

There's enough humor in the script to keep the story from getting bogged down.

“This particular work is based on real experiences .. in no way is it fabricated,” Calafato said, although in the same breath he cops to taking artistic license with the material, which he tends to refine with each performance. “It’s not journalism,” he said.

An indefatigable self-promoter, Calafato calls the play “solo theater for social change.” Every performance is followed by a panel discussion on for-profit colleges and the larger issue of student loan debt.

Calafato was born and raised in Berea and Medina – although his classmates would have known him as Aaron Collier. He revived an old family name, Calafato, to use for his stage and debt activism work, he said.

He graduated from Bowling Green in 2005 with a communications degree, then moved to New York, where his wife attended grad school. When she graduated and her loans came due, the couple found themselves responsible for $1,500 a month in combined student loan payments.

“That’s when we started getting an education on what compound interest is,” Calafato said.

One lesson: Lower cost of living really matters when you’re trying to cover the rent and pay off debt. The couple hightailed it back to Ohio, where Calafato picked up the short-lived advisor gig that inspired "For Profit."

“I wrote the play in my car during lunch breaks,” he said.

Calafato eventually created a nonprofit organization that uses the one-man show to generate conversation about student debt. The show's tab is usually picked up by campus or education groups, allowing Calafato to perform free for the public.

Calafato said he always wanted to work as an artist, and the one-man show has given him the chance. “My life," he said, "has become performing this play."

Considering that students who borrow for college owe an average $27,000 when they graduate, Calafato should have a rapt audience.

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