Write Actions to Show Character

I'm still at home waiting for the electrician to get back from getting things for my stupid doorbell and address light fixture. But I'm flipping through the channels and stopped on THE INSIDER on HBO with Russell Crowe.

Anyways, in 2 short minutes, there's a scene with Russell Crowe and his daughter as she's having a asthma attack. He hooks up a machine and she's cured. In this scene we can tell that this isn't current because it's a machine not an inhaler. and also, really briefly, before the scene started it looked like there was conflict between Russell's character and his wife. after the daughter's asthma attack subsided, the wife is sitting next to the daughter, Russell is in front of the daughter with the machine, and we see the wife put her hand on Russell's hand. The conflict is resolved. True, with the use of camera, we can see that the spouses give each other the 'understanding' look, but still it communicated.

I've been having an internal conflict of whether or not to write stage directions in my scripts. You can see examples of that from my previous posts labeled 'script'. but with this brief action, a hand on top of another, that direction spoke volumes to me.

Briefly, another direction/action that comes to mind is when I watched a production of MACBETH. Macduff, when talking about his wife, kisses his wedding band. Not written, but again, spoke volumes.

There are times when I'll opt not to use stage directions, which I'll feel the director can aptly take care of, but when it comes to an IMPORTANT action to reveal a character and move the story forward, I will. Huge lesson learned.