Nowadays movie theaters and concert halls use dimmed lights to let you know the show is beginning. We're so used to this queue that we don't even think about it. But I wonder what they did in the years before electricity. Hiring a crew to blow out the candles and light them during an intermission would be a bitch. Even more, they had no spotlights to draw the audience's attention to certain actors or events. I know Shakespeare's plays were acted during the day probably for this reason since the Globe was outside, but what about ballets or such that were inside? Everything was by candlelight? What effects were lost because they couldn't control ambiance with illumination?