Live theater has been an important method of entertainment, self-expression and storytelling for centuries and still plays an important role in modern society for the same reasons, however not all shows will successfully entertain, express or tell their story. The first and one of the most vital features of a successful show is the performances of the actors. To evaluate an actor's performance there are many aspects to consider, I believe the most important are vocalization, physicalization and characterization. I will be critiquing The Bengal Tiger at the Bagdad Zoo, the story of the life and afterlife of people and animals caught in the middle of a war-torn country, performed by Persona Collective at the Annexe Theater April 10-12. , about the performances of John Swindle and Amanda Phillips. The first aspect of a performance that makes a good actor is his vocalization. Vocalization for most characters is the most important aspect, as without words there is little else to convey the message. A fantastic example of poor voice work is shown in Swindle's performance as the tiger. When Swindle entered the space, his voice had a decent volume and his accent was firm, but unfortunately the good work stopped there and the performance went into decline. From the beginning, it was obvious that Swindle didn't know his lines, and as a result, his voice work suffered severely. The volume of his speech became lower as he struggled with his lines, especially noticeable in scene 4 during the tiger's monologue as he discusses religion and death, much of the dialogue was lost due to the missing volume and the words could not be listen. The con also often stumbled during the... middle of the card......ken and knew exactly how it should be presented. He knew his characters inside and out and gave 2 truly believable and perfectly characterized performances. The first and one of the most vital features of a successful show is the performances of the actors and in this case, the success of the show was let down by one actor. It's obvious that Swindle needs to think more about each of those important aspects of his performance and what he needs to do with them to successfully portray a character, focusing more individual thought on how he uses his voice, how he uses his body. and how he builds a believable character. If Swindles' performance had been of the same standard as Phillips', perhaps the show could have been a great success, however I don't think there was a single person who could say they saw a perfect show without needing improvement.