The coun­try re­ceived some much-need­ed good news yes­ter­day af­ter it was made pub­lic that lo­cal ac­tor and act­ing teacher Michael Cher­rie has made his way to the wide­ly watched Net­flix net­work star­ring in the high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed movie Shirley.

The news is not on­ly a ma­jor ac­com­plish­ment for Cher­rie him­self but al­so for the lo­cal the­atre and arts com­mu­ni­ty.

For those who may not be aware of Cher­rie’s pro­fes­sion­al thes­pi­an has been a sta­ple in the­atre and tele­vi­sion.

A Cacique Award win­ner, he al­so graced the stage of the Trinidad The­atre Work­shop and worked with the likes of Caribbean writ­ing greats Sir Derek Wal­cott, Tony Hall and Rawle Gib­bons.

Cher­rie al­so caught the at­ten­tion of prime­time view­ers lo­cal­ly and abroad, ap­pear­ing in the ac­claimed lo­cal soap opera West­wood Park. His tal­ent al­so made its way to Cana­di­an and British au­di­ences.

How­ev­er, his ef­forts for greater in­ter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion ­­— which many lo­cal ac­tors and ac­tress­es strive to­wards — were im­ped­ed by im­mi­gra­tion is­sues as he was de­nied work per­mits in both the Unit­ed King­dom and the Unit­ed States.

These tribu­la­tions have no doubt made his Net­flix deal even sweet­er and now serve as a source of in­spi­ra­tion to the act­ing com­mu­ni­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly those still young in the busi­ness.

It is no se­cret that many in the the­atre in­dus­try are of­ten forced to work full-time else­where to pay bills, while their pas­sion is of­ten viewed as a hob­by and fails to gar­ner the re­spect and recog­ni­tion it tru­ly de­serves.

Spaces such as the Beryl Mc Burnie found­ed Lit­tle Carib The­atre, which dou­bled as a hub for dancers and ac­tors with sev­er­al plays by the Wal­cott run The­atre Work­shop tak­ing place there, need greater ap­pre­ci­a­tion. Such spaces are an av­enue for cul­tur­al and artis­tic ex­pres­sions to flour­ish and it is high time they re­ceive the sup­port — both fi­nan­cial and oth­er­wise — to keep them afloat and around for gen­er­a­tions to come.

As we cel­e­brate Cher­rie’s well-de­served star­ring role on the Net­flix film along­side the likes of pop­u­lar US ac­tors Regi­na King and Ter­rence Howard, we must al­so en­sure the path is well paved for lo­cal ac­tors to hone their skills; sup­port their works and make it eas­i­er for them to take their tal­ents to the glob­al stage.