After every Prime Stage Theatre performance, there's a chat session in which the audience can talk to the actors and, often, the director. It's part of the company's educational mission. Sometimes the sessions are lighthearted, with general questions about working in theater. Not so for "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" and "The Terezin Promise."

		"I Never Saw Another Butterfly" "The Terezin Promise" Where: Prime Stage at 937 Liberty Ave., Downtown. When: Through March 20; 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat.; 2:30 p.m. Sun. Tickets: $8-$15; 412-394-3353.

Concerns voiced include the scarcity of teaching about the Holocaust in many schools. Prime Stage's "Butterfly Project," which, along with the one-acts, includes discussions and a lobby display, tries to rectify that. Artistic director Wayne Brinda, who directs the plays, is working with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. to create a national model for teaching secondary school students about the Holocaust through the arts.

What the stage production does well is relay the human and individual aspects of the Holocaust. It doesn't -- and perhaps can't -- get at the overwhelming horror, although it may be as significant to comprehend the senseless death of one as to try to imagine the unimaginable deaths of millions.

Celeste Raspanti's "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" and "The Terezin Promise" are based on Hana Volavkova's book and tell the story of Raja Englanderova, a 16-year-old girl interred at the Terezin camp outside of Prague. Many artists, teachers and children were sent to this "model camp"; many were transported later to Auschwitz. When liberation comes in 1945, Raja saves the children's poems and drawings from destruction by the Nazis.

Raspanti maintains a focus on Raja's relationships as she interacts with girlfriends and develops a crush on a boy. There are scenes in which Raja has close and serious discussions with a favorite teacher who becomes a substitute for the mother she's lost.

Elizabeth Chappel, a senior at North Allegheny High School, makes it easy to become involved in Raja's life. Chappel brings a quietness to Raja that draws you in. It's as if Raja has internalized too much, and she releases her emotions carefully and sparingly, insisting that you take what she does say very seriously. Chappel pulls off this quiet expressiveness because her large eyes relay such emotion, whether it's a moment of vulnerability with her teacher or of joy with boyfriend Honza.

Deborah Wein, the only adult in the cast, plays the teacher with moving intensity. She has to carry the weight of knowledge that the children, especially the younger children, can barely begin to understand. Wein demonstrates that burden and, whether singing with the children or imploring one of them for help, expresses urgency with her every breath.

Prime Stage regular Michael O'Brien brings his usual focus to Hanus, the leader of Raja's group, and Joseph Michael Moser makes an impressive Prime Stage debut in the role of Raja's love interest. Moser ably mixes a youthful exuberance with a sad wisdom and quiet acceptance of life and death.

There is some unevenness of acting, not unexpected with a young ensemble, but Brinda is wise to cast age-appropriate actors. It's important to hammer home the reality of the internment of children in the Holocaust.

As are some of the figures Brinda reports in the chat session -- 15,000 children went through Terezin; 100 are known to have survived. Brinda's and Prime Stage's achievement is that knowing one of those lives makes the other 14,900 just as real.