Preparatory workshops may include puppet, mask, and banner-making; story and theme development; puppetry, movement, and stilt-dancing; and, in the final stage, rehearsal and public performance. Pageant workshops can last from 1 to 10 weeks, and always include an intensive period of work 3-5 days before the performances. Projects may include individuals, as well as artistic groups (musicians, dancers, or writers) or community groups (neighborhood, school, social, activist), and can be organized around an historic event, a political issue, an anniversary, or a theme of the community's choosing. For more information about hosting a Great Small Works event, contact Mark Sussman.

In 1996, GSW created "A History of Apizza in New Haven" for the first International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, Connecticut. Hundreds of school children and volunteers from New Haven's diverse communities constructed giant puppets and masks, researched local history, wrote personal recollections, learned to dance on stilts and manipulate puppets, rehearsed, and presented an outdoor circus history of the city. Performances took place on the town Green during the Festival.

In January, 1998, GSW was invited by third generation Mexican puppeteer Pablo Cueto to conduct workshops in Toy Theater at the Museo de Cultures Populares in Coyoacan, Mexico City. Working with a group of theater students, photographers, theater and puppetry professionals, and cartoonists, the company divided a group of 80 participants into teams, each of whom created a new theater work over the course of one week. After showing the company's TOY THEATER OF TERROR AS USUAL, the groups met daily to write texts, design puppets, build miniature stages, and rehearse their productions. A final showing was held in the museum courtyard.

In Spring, 1998, GSW conducted a 6-week workshop with teachers and students at the Bread & Roses Integrated Arts High School in Harlem, NYC. The pageant was based on the textile workers' strike from which the school took its name. Workshops culminated in a free, outdoor performance in the park across the street from the school.