Utahn snares a big rolein a new 'Little House'
By Vince Horiuchi 
The Salt Lake Tribune 

From playing Thing One in "The Cat in the Hat" to 
Mary Ingalls in the new remake of "Little House on 
the Prairie," Danielle Ryan Chuchran of Utah is on 
a rocket ride taken by few aspiring actors. 

After trying the acting thing for only 2 1/2 years, 
the 11-year-old student already has joked with Mike 
Myers, hung out with "Crossing Jordan" star Jill 
Hennessy and crossed the rugged plains of Calgary, 
Canada. 

"We do get phone calls occasionally [from other actors] 
asking, 'Whose your agent?' " Danielle said. 

Now the blonde, round-faced pre-teen is co-starring in 
a new miniseries, playing Mary Ingalls in "Little House 
on the Prairie," the same role that turned Melissa Sue 
Anderson into a TV star. 

The new five-part miniseries, "Laura Ingalls Wilder's 
Little House on the Prairie," premieres Saturday at 7 
p.m. on KTVX Channel 4. 

Wilder tells the story of a pioneer family of four who 
decide to leave economically depressed Wisconsin in the 
late 1800s to make the trek to Kansas for a plot of land 
on which to build a home. Family members fight wolves, 
cross the frozen Mississippi River and cope with extreme 
cold and heat as they trudge across the prairies in their 
covered wagon. 

Danielle -- friends and family call her Danni -- shot the 
series for three months last year in the beautiful but 
often brutal terrain of Calgary, where the cast endured 
the extreme weather experienced by pioneers, albeit with 
more comfortable amenities in between shots. 

"On the nice and warm days, we would take our chairs and 
put them on the prairie and shoot the scenes," she said. 
"And Kyle [10-year-old Kyle Chavarria, who plays little 
sister Laura] and I would make up our own games or actually 
go out and chase gophers." 

Danielle, a former Hawaiian Tropic pageant winner as a 
child, first caught the acting bug with the 2001 movie 
"Little Secrets," starring Evan Rachel Wood ("The Missing") 
and Vivica Fox ("Kill Bill"). And the roles have not stopped 
since. 

She has appeared in episodes of "Girlfriends" and "Crossing 
Jordan" and, in her biggest role, played one of the Cat in 
the Hat's impish sidekicks in the big-screen adaptation of 
the Dr. Seuss book. 

"She's done pretty well considering she has had three 
feature films, a movie of the week, various [TV shows], 
several commercials and now 'Little House,' " said 
Danielle's mother, Sharon Chuchran. 

"When she's on a stage, she has a presence about her that's 
very capturing," she added. "No one else in the family has 
that talent. If you try to have us onstage, we run off to 
hide." 

Danielle and her family are waiting to see if the new 
"Little House on the Prairie" resonates with viewers the 
way it did 30 years ago. 

"They have been talking about this as an actual series, and 
we really want this to go on because it was a great project," 
Danielle said. "But that depends on how many people watch 
the show."