Director, actress, artistic director and Bay Area theatre legend Joy Carlin has been inspiring artists and audiences on the San Francisco theater scene since the 1960s. Trained at Yale Drama School, she started out as one of the core members of the American Conservatory Theater ensemble, but over the years has appeared regularly with such companies as Berkeley Rep (she briefly took the reins of that company in the 1980s), the late San Jose Repertory, Marin Theatre Company and especially the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley, where she has also directed more than a dozen plays.   She has also maintained a lively film career, including a gem of a role in Woody Allen’s SF film “Blue Jasmine.”   Her many honors include 18 Bay Area Critics’ Circle awards for acting and directing, and the Barbara Bladen Porter award for continued excellence in acting and directing.