A browser's guide to things to do and see in Berlin this month

There is much, much more than East bloc art to encounter in West Berlin this month. If there is any one word that characterizes this 36th Berlin Festival Weeks it must be the German word for overabundance, "uberangebote. It seems the festival planners are unaware of the old French proverb, ``let them go away a little bit hungry so they will return for more.''

With so much intensity of excellent entertainment to choose from, one wonders if any one artist or visitor will be able to actually practice the ``encountering of art'' of the ``art of encounter'' that could lead to a new understanding between East and West. Here's a sampling of some of the other events now underway in West Berlin:

The Junction Avenue Theater Company from South Africa, where black and white actors have always worked side by side, will present ``Sophiatown.''

``Sophiatown'' offers a glimpse of the way Johannesburg was in the early 1950s, before the ``Group Areas Act'' (the law that divides living areas according to skin color, faith, and origin) was enacted in all districts across the nation.

From Parlor to the Concert Hall: Women at the Piano is a series of six concerts by distinguished women pianists from France, Russia, Italy, Uruguay, and Germany.

The Festival Weeks dance program offers a rich spread of choices, including the following: New York's Twyla Tharp Dance, presenting ``Bakers Dozen,'' the Cullbergbaletten from Stockholm with ``Bernarda Albas House,'' Carolyn Carlson in ``Blue Lady,'' and the Nikolais Dance Theater.

Again at this year's festival there will be several premier performances of musical works. These include works by Moscow composers Edison Denissow and Sofia Gubaidulina, and German composers Aribert Reimann, Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, Manfred Trojahn, and Isang Yun, and Bulgarian composer Simeon Pironkoff.

Festival programs and information can be obtained from The Berliner Festival Weeks Information Center, Budapesterstr. 48, 1000 Berlin 30, Tel. 254 89 250.