Two scenes in Last Bus to the Oasis have no dialogue at all. They were the hardest to plan and the easiest to shoot.
Give actors a task
Instead of describing emotions, I gave each actor a physical task: fold a napkin, count coins, wait for a phone. The emotion appeared in how they did it.
Hold the shot
We kept takes long and the camera still. Cutting too early would have broken the tension the silence was building.