Here we describe tools to study the step-wise assembly of protein complexes on chromatin in a highly-controlled manner using reconstituted chromatin platforms and quantitative proteomic profiling. We profile the early steps in transcriptional activation and highlight the potential for understanding the multiple ways chromatin can influence transcriptional regulation. We also describe modifications of this approach to study the activity of a long noncoding RNA to act as a dynamic scaffold for proteins to be recruited to chromatin. The reconstituted nature of the chromatin substrate offers a tune-able system, able to be trapped at specific sub-steps, to understand how chromatin interfaces with genome regulation machinery.