John Caviggia, who has died of cancer in Cape Town at the age of 64, was an outrageously flamboyant, eccentric and talented veteran of the performing arts. He wrote gripping plays and addictive serials for Springbok Radio in its glory days, and designed, produced, acted and lectured. But it was as a staff member of the University of Cape Town's drama school that he made his true mark.His lectures there in the '70s and '80s, in every facet of theatre including design, makeup, the history of costume and, of course, acting, soon became the stuff of legend. They steered the career of many a subsequent star including Richard E Grant, Sean Taylor, Terry Norton, Neil McCarthy and Fiona Ramsay.If he could teach makeup to Sean Taylor, he would tell students who were doubtful about mastering this arcane art, he could teach anyone.His impact on apprehensive first-year students was immediate and unforgettable.The lecture theatre would be entirely dark save for a podium light in the glow of which stood an intriguing apparition in a black, wide-brimmed hat, black cape, silver-topped cane and string of pearls with a rose at his throat."Hello," it said in a nasal drawl. "I'm John Caviggia. I'm your costume lecturer."Or the lights would go off and he'd sweep on to the stage in eye-wateringly tight pants and a soft voluminous shirt, with a large rose and whip in his hand.Master of the grand entrance, he invariably invoked an awed response. Students would leave whatever courses they were doing to sign up for Drama1 to attend his lectures. Because no Caviggia lecture was just that. It was theatre.story_article_left1On one occasion his entrance was accompanied by a clanging sound and it took students a while to work out that he was wearing a string of cow bells as a belt.Everything he did was theatrical. A withering putdown, decapitating a bottle of champagne with a sword or simply discombobulating a nervous first-year student from the hinterland confused about the gender of this unusual object next to him in the canteen, with its shoulder-length hair, waistcoat, necklaces and broaches, and that exuded an unmistakeable whiff of perfume."Hello darling," Caviggia would whisper with a wicked twinkle in the eye.Master of camp he may have been, but Caviggia, or "Cabbage" as he was inevitably called, was as stern a lecturer as any."Your general sense of theatre history is poor," he'd tell students who failed to meet his exacting standards. "Do me a favour, please. Until you've read this lot let's not even talk. Go and do your education. You have no excuse not to know and no excuse not to read."Usually he was more to the point, as in: "Bullshit. Go and check the details. Do the work."His own sense of theatre history was hard to equal. Nobody knew more about period jewellery or period style."Not the cigarette in the hand that way, it's 1930. Please change it," he'd say as he walked past a group of rehearsing students. His command of detail was extraordinary.His bible was Historic Costume for the Stage by Lucy Barton. "If you don't memorise every detail I WILL fail you. That's guaranteed," he'd tell students wondering if they really needed to read the tome.The UCT drama school was modelled on British drama schools like the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. As at those institutions, discipline was extremely tight and Caviggia, in spite of his lovable eccentricities, insisted on it.First-years would be given apprenticeship jobs: they had to fetch and carry, iron costumes for senior students and so on. He didn't tolerate bad behaviour or excuses. God help students if they were late for a makeup class or whose makeup boxes were untidy.Theatre was tough and he made sure students didn't forget it.When he left UCT in the '90s he continued as an actor, director, mentor and coach. He also lectured in cosmetics to trainee beauticians at the Cape Technikon.He swept into his first class in 1993 with typical panache, cane in hand and flowing cape, surveyed the class, one brow raised, and announced that only three of the 30 there had shaped brows. They never looked back.Caviggia was born in Elizabethville in the Congo on February 9 1952, where his parents ran several family businesses including a hotel and a car dealership. They left the Congo when he was about four and settled in Cape Town.The progeny of an Italian father and English mother he was a precocious and somewhat pampered child, and effortlessly brilliant at everything to which he turned his hand.He attended Camps Bay High School but failed Afrikaans in Standard 7 which in those days meant being kept down. He showed no inclination to improve his Afrikaans and so he was sent to Cape Tutorial College where he completed his schooling in one year. He trained at the Maas Phillips College of Speech and Drama and at the UCT drama school, where he became a lecturer in his early 20s.Perhaps he was too much of an original to have modelled himself on Oscar Wilde. But those who know him don't doubt that Caviggia, a member of the Roman Catholic church - he loved the ritual and incense - would have swept straight to the Pearly Gates and said: "Wilde, please."He is survived by his brother Michel.1952-2016..