There'll be an exceptional array of outstanding work on display during this month's Tremont Art Walk, taking place from 6-10 p.m. today. Arabella Proffer's Private Empire: The National Portrait Gallery of Kessa brings the artist's unique contemporary take to classical portraiture intended to flatter nobility. She's combined modern punk and goth looks with historical fashions in her crisply painted portraits (pictured), creating a time-warping culture clash that sets off a conceptual chain reaction. Her paintings will be accompanied by extensive auxiliary material including invented biographies, genealogies and maps when her fictional portrait gallery opens at Asterisk Gallery (2393 Professor Ave., asteriskgallery.com). At the same time, 3D paintings by Tim Herron will go on display in Asterisk's basement gallery. Around the corner, Doubting Thomas Gallery (856 Jefferson Ave.) kicks off the upcoming feast of exhibits in tribute to the photographer Masumi Hayashi who was murdered last year. (Shows open at MOCA, SPACES, the CSU Gallery and the Akron Art Museum in the next month). This show, called To Masumi, features not her own work, but that of two dozen friends, colleagues, her former Cleveland State students and area artists influenced by her including such area notables as Joan of Art, Douglas Max Utter and Julius Lyles. For tonight's 6-11 opening, violinist Michael Doc Dreyfuss and ambient guitarist Bill Weita will provide music. The show runs through November 2. Other shows to check out: the 6-10 p.m. closing at the Brandt Gallery (1028 Kenilworth Ave., 216.621.1610) of Ebb, a series of black-and-white prints by Pamela Dodds, recently acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Roger Mastroianni's powerful black-and-white photos of LTV Steel in the early '90s titled Labor and Industry, closing at Browns Market (761 Starkweather Ave.) from 6-9 p.m. - Anastasia Pantsios

Wednesday, October 10

The Lion in Winter

Weathervane Playhouse (1301 Weathervane Lane, Akron) may not have Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn as did the 1968 movie version of James Goldman's 1966 Broadway drama The Lion in Winter. But the group is tackling the pseudo-historical piece, which embellishes on the relationships between the royal family Plantegenet in 1182, especially the adversarial relationship of Henry II and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine and the jockeying among their sons for succession to the throne of England. Featuring a cast that includes both Weathervane veterans and Kent State students, it opens in previews at 7:30 tonight and tomorrow with official opening at 8 p.m. Friday, October 12. It runs at 7:30 Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through October 28. Tickets: $14-$20. Box office: 330.836.2626. - AP

CityMusic Cleveland

CityMusic Cleveland opens its fourth season of sharing the talents of some of the area's best classical musicians with people who may not have the time, money or inclination to go to Severance Hall, continuing its mission of taking the music to different communities in Northeast Ohio for free. Its first program features violinist Jinjoo Cho as soloist in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, soprano Angela Mortellaro in Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Mozart's overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio and Ravel's Mother Goose Suite. It's at St. Vitus Church (6019 Lausche Ave.) at 7 tonight, St. Mary Church (320 Middle Ave., Elyria) at 7:30 tomorrow, St. Noel Church (35200 Chardon Rd., Willoughby Hills) at 8 p.m. Friday, the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus (3649 E. 65th St.) at 8 p.m. Saturday, and the Rocky River Presbyterian Church (21750 Detroit Rd.) at 7:30 Sunday. Each concert includes an art exhibit by area artists and an intermission reception at which audience members can interact with the musicians. Call 216.283.4649 or go to citymusiccleveland.org. - AP

Thursday, October 11

AtTENtion Span: Festival of 10-Minute Plays

Find Mucking - With Sarah Kunchik (top) and Margi Herwald Zilelle in AtTENtion Span at CPT.

It's theater for the attention-deficit generation, or for those who don't like long-term commitments in their evening of theater. AtTENtion Span at Cleveland Public Theatre (6415 Detroit Ave.) offers eight 10-minute plays, chosen from over 400 submissions, by local and national authors. A 13-member cast will sprint through these snippets of stagecraft on a variety of topics from politics to zombies - hey, if there's one about GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson, they'd have two in one! This smorgasbord opens at 8 tonight and runs at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays through October 27. Tickets: $10-$18. Call 216.631.2727. - AP

Friday, October 12

Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional Victorian-era London detective Sherlock Holmes has set a gold standard for detective/crime stories for well over a century. (The first stories about the cerebral sleuth, who could look at a scuff mark and read the entire history of a complex crime, were published in 1887). Since most of the "action" takes place in Holmes' head, the tales don't seem like prime candidates for theatrical presentation, yet he's remained a favorite stage and film character virtually as long as he's existed. Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, to be staged by the Cleveland Play House (8500 Euclid Ave.) starting at 8 tonight in previews, formally opening at 8 p.m. October 17, and running through November 4, is based on an 1889 play co-authored by Doyle. It features a cast of well-traveled, well-seasoned pros including Timothy Crowe, whom CPH regulars will remember as Henry Higgins in last year's My Fair Lady, as Holmes' nemesis Moriarty. Tickets: $10 and up. Call 216.795.7000, ext. 4. - AP

Harriet Moore Ballard

Harriet Moore Ballard's semi-abstract paintings strew words, human faces and forms, lines and geometric figures across fields of color in a seemingly random melange that at second glance are more integrated and balanced than it might first appear. Ballard, who graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1987, went on to get her master's of fine arts degree at the Instituto de Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where she continues to make her home. Clevelanders can see her latest work in a show appropriately titled Order & Chaos, opening today at the Bonfoey Gallery (1710 Euclid Ave., 216.621.0178). It runs through November 10. - AP

Cleveland Pops Orchestra

An embattled city going sports-crazed is a fearful thing. Imagine the Cleveland Museum of Art trading its entire collection for Franz Hals' "Laughing Cavalier" and the right to paint LeBron's face over it; the Cinematheque showing only Major League movies; a statue of Albert Belle replacing Tom Johnson on Public Square; a Bernie Kosar mayoral run. Perhaps that slippery slope begins at 8 tonight as maestro Carl Topilow and the Cleveland Pops Orchestra do their season-opener, Music of Champions. Though taking place in wimpy Severance Hall, this is true arena spectacle, teams of North Coast sports VIPs accenting performances of music inspired by jock competition. Most are evocative fanfares from classic sports-flick soundtracks: Rocky, Chariots of Fire, The Natural and Field of Dreams. Will Topilow whip out a live accompaniment to projection of the vintage Browns music video "Masters of the Gridiron"? Will the crowd do the wave? Will some girl in the balcony get a public marriage proposal on a JumboTron? To find out call the Severance Hall ticket office, 216.231.1111 or go to clevelandpops.com. Or just deal with the scalpers outside Severance Hall on game day. - Charles Cassady Jr.

Sunday, October 14

JIM HARRISON - Legend, at the Cleveland Public Library.

Walkin' Talkin' Bill Hawkins

Pioneering Cleveland African-American radio announcer from the '40s and '50s, Bill Hawkins was inducted into the Ohio TV/Radio Broadcasters Hall of Fame on October 7, a long overdue honor. But it's only recently that his reputation has been revived, thanks to the work of a son who never knew him in his lifetime, playwright/actor W. Allen Taylor. Taylor created a one-man show called Walkin' Talkin' Bill Hawkins, based on his father's life, that was produced at the Cleveland Play House last summer. He's bringing the show back for one performance only at the East Cleveland Public Library (14101 Euclid Ave.) at 4 p.m. Tickets: $10; call 216.541.4128, ext. 232 for reservations. - AP

Jim Harrison

Sunday afternoon in the library with Jim - that's what the Cleveland Public Library has on tap today. The CPL Writers & Readers series brings in Michigan-born novelist, screenwriter and poet Jim Harrison to the auditorium in the main library's Louis Stokes Wing (325 Superior Ave.). It's your chance to meet the author of seven novels (including Dalva, Legends of the Fall and Farmer, all made into films or TV programs) and nine collections of poetry, plus nonfiction such as his gourmet memoir The Raw and the Cooked. Perhaps novella-ist is a better description, since Harrison prefers lyrical, short-form narratives over sprawling saga-like doorstops, and the legend of Legends of the Fall is that Harrison finished the famed title largely over a single snowbound weekend cooped up in his cabin. And you probably would have just watched golf on TV. Harrison will talk to Cleveland fans at 2 p.m., in a free event, and copies of his work will be for sale. For information, call 216.623.2800. - CC

Tuesday, October 16

The Drowzy Chaperone

The staff at Playhouse Square will perhaps have had its fill of the touring version of Broadway's The Drowzy Chaperone by the time it opens at 7:30 tonight at the Palace Theatre - it rehearsed there for four weeks in August and September. But musical fans should be eager to see the lighthearted piece which revolves around a musical theater buff whose favorite show comes to life in his apartment when he plays the cast album, creating opportunities for lots of singing and dancing. It runs through October 28. Tickets: $10-$65. Call 216.241.6000 or go to playhousesquare.com. - AP

Wednesday, October 17

The Choir of Winchester Cathedral

This season's Helen D. Schubert Concert Series at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist (East 9th and Superior) kicks off in spectacular fashion with a visit from the Choir of Winchester Cathedral in England. The group, which blends adult male and boys' voices, performs daily at the famed ancient cathedral during certain times of year, broadcasts on the BBC, records and tours internationally. In Cleveland, it'll perform a program called Music of Renaissance Masters. It's free; a freewill offering will be taken. Call 216.771.6666, ext. 5510 or go to saintjohncathedral.com for info. - AP