Well, I've been looking at Sam Wasserman's strobe pages and links frome there, one of which details the modification of a kodak max disposable camera flash, by replacement of the storage cap- from 160uf to a 5uf (chosen because the author had it in junk box), resulting in a power reduction (duration reduction) to 1/36th the original. He goes on to make a repeating strobe, but for the purposes I need, simply the reduction in flash duration is all that is needed. For most photography, you'd like a longer flash duration. For this, the power isn't as important as the speed.
Excellent discussion of abuse of strobes in general:http://repairfaq.cis.upenn.edu/sam/strbfaq.htm#strbnsc
Assuming we are talking typical cheapo, that's a 1ms strobe.. which already is faster (lower power) than the studio flash. If the result is real- 36 times faster - that's a VERY usable interval.
For stop-motion, you don't need a ton of light- but you need that light to come on and off VERY fast.
What you've suggested is called a quenching circuit, and it's what is used in high-end strobes costing thousands... the damping circuit to interrupt the arc takes HUGE energy dissapation, methinks..