Laura McCarthy David Crawford portrays Angus Tuck and Marie Karcher is Winnie Foster in Prime Stage Theatre's "Tuck Everlasting." Click photo for larger image.

It is sad but true that a great book doesn't always translate into a great play; dramatic adaptations of novels often leave out just those aspects of the original works that make them worth reading in the first place.

That is one reason why "Tuck Everlasting," with a script by Mark Frattaroli based on Natalie Babbitt's Newbery award-winning children's book, is such a pleasant surprise.

Babbitt's book concerns 10-year-old Winnie Foster's transformative encounter with the Tuck family. Since drinking from a spring in the nearby woods almost a century ago, the Tucks -- parents Mae and Angus, sons Miles and Jesse -- have not aged, and Winnie discovers their secret.

The book asks profound questions about morality and death, but its success rests partly on Babbitt's narrative voice and its evocation of nature's cycle. In the Prime Stage production, much of that voice and description is deftly handled by a chorus of five young women (Leah Dawson, Anna Coufal, Cathleen Colbert, Eliana Raizel Latterman, and Emily Gup). Besides giving "Tuck" its literary voice, the chorus also serves as scenery, becoming a fence within which Winnie is trapped and the woods among which she wanders.

As Angus and Mae Tuck, David Crawford and Kendra McLaughlin show us the couple's cheerful earnestness as well as their deep sadness. Crawford has the play's best scene, a rowboat ride during which he tries to convince Winnie (a timid but winning Marie Karcher) she must keep the secret of the spring. The emotional center of "Tuck" is the tenderness between Winnie and the doomed Tucks, but Crawford handles these scenes with a light touch so that the play never becomes overly sentimental, a universal danger in children's works.

Tommy Kolos and Tim Bickel, as Miles and Jesse, respectively, also manage difficult scenes with assurance, and despite their youth both convey a strong stage presence that betrays considerable acting experience. Director Lora Oxenreiter strikes a balance between more experienced performers, such as Kolos, and those just starting out, like Karcher, that makes the most of everyone's talents.

Another pleasant surprise of this production lies in how well it seems to fulfill an important educational mission for young people in our area. Founded in 1996, Prime Stage is the brainchild of artistic director Wayne Brinda, whose doctoral dissertation at Duquesne University was titled "Bringing Literature to Life." Brinda drew on studies that show that exposure to theater and the arts encourages adolescent "reluctant readers" to pick up books and to become critical thinkers.

		"Tuck Everlasting" WHERE: Prime Stage Theatre at 937 Liberty Ave., Downtown. WHEN: Through Oct. 31; 7:30 p.m. Thurs.; 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat.; 2:30 p.m. Sun. TICKETS: $8-$15; 412-394-3353.

With the help of a Teen Advisory Board, Prime Stage productions are chosen from award-winning youth literature, but the educational program goes far beyond the production itself.

For example, through the Adopt-a-School program, Prime Stage sends educators into at-risk classrooms to conduct lessons on Babbitt's "Tuck Everlasting" in preparation for a field trip to see the play at special student matinees at the Hazlett Theater. And through mentoring and internship opportunities, youth learn about every aspect of mounting the production, from ushering to lighting and rehearsals.

Educator intern Rebecca Covert sums up Prime Stage's goal this way: "We want to bring students into the world of the story."

"Tuck Everlasting" succeeds in that goal for theatergoers, aged and ageless alike.