Award-winning playwright, Efo Kodjo Mawugbe, is dead. Information reaching Myjoyonline.com Wednesday say the renowned playwright, who is also Director of the National Theatre, died in the early hours of Wednesday at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital where he had been on admission for some weeks. The late Mawugbe was being treated for prostate cancer and paralysis, a source close to the family told Myjoyonline.com. Efo was renowned for his writing prowess in drama. He was winner of the BBC's International Radio Playwriting Competition 2009 with his play, The Prison Graduates. His play was selected out of 12,000 entries across the world. Efo Kodjo was born on 21 April 1954 in Kumasi to Madam Comfort Tulasi, a cook at Africa Hall of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and the late Michael Ayivi Mawugbe who worked with the laundry department of the University. He schooled at Mawuli School, where he obtained his General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary and Advance Levels. His interest and talent in theatre drama begun at Mawuli School, Ho, where he joined the school’s drama group. Right from secondary school form one, he played the role of Senchi in Efua Sutherland’s Edufa and by form three, he succeeded in writing a play for his house (TROST House) in the school. Efo Kodjo then gained admission into the University of Ghana where he studied Theatre Arts, majoring in playwriting from 1975 to 1978. Later in 1991, he did a certificate course in senior management development at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). He also studied at the Bauff Centre for Management Calgary Canada in 1995 and was also sent to the E. T. A Chicago, USA on a USIS-sponsored attachment programme in Theatre and Events Organisation. Efo Kodjo further studied at the British Council, Glasgow and London, where he did a certificate programme in Theatre Management and Audience Development. From 1979-1984, he served as a Senior Research Assistant - African Theatre at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Centre for Cultural Studies) where he helped students in the developing and production of plays. He has to his credit 19 plays. These include: "A Calabash of Blood" - Radio Drama- GBC in 1978, "Aluta Continua" - drama - produced for radio, stage and T.V. distributed in Africa by URTNA (1979) and in 1980, "The Unbending Branch" - Radio Drama (GBC). Between 2001-2002, Efo Kodjo was a part-time Assistant Lecturer (Playwriting) at the Theatre Arts Department of the University of Ghana, where he supervised final year playwriting students. Efo Kodjo was survived by a wife and five children.