Efo Kodjo Mawugbe, the Deputy Executive Director of the National Theatre in Accra, has been appointed to the facility's topmost position as the acting Executive Director.

The promotion, which took effect from June, this year, puts Efo Mawugbe at the helm of affairs of the theatre, with the oversight administrative mandate to run it.

Prominent among his duties will be to ensure that the aims and the aspirations of the founding fathers of the theatre movement in Ghana were realised, as well as to raise the level of the arts industry to internationally accepted standards.

The position has been vacant for the past six years, since Prof Komia Amoako completed his tenure as the director. Efo Mawugbe told the Times on Tuesday that he would perform his core responsibilities to ensure the development, reservation and promotion of the arts in the country.

In this vein, he said, the theatre would pay attention to more children-centered programmes, to nurture the next generation of theatre and art practitioners in the country.

"It's also time for the theatre to link up with that of other countries on the continent and beyond, such as South Africa, for us to keep abreast with new trends in the dynamic theatre industry," he said, announcing that next year, we'll be coming out with a theatre journal (or a quarterly magazine) which will profile our legends, wherever they are, dead or alive, and also keep the public updated on our programmes."

The National Theatre, built in 1992, has an overall capacity of 1,500 with three main resident companies, namely the National Dance Company, National Drama Company (Abibigroma) and the National Symphony Orchestra.