About Us!




Ann Paris, with the help of friends and family, produced Alice in Wonderland in 2016 as an opportunity for her students that she had trained, both privately in voice lessons and in her Musical Theater troupe 88634 at Buddy Taylor Middle School. The following year, the non-profit organization, Flagler Performing Arts Academy (FPAA) was formed. Since then, it has been a Palm Coast summer tradition that the kids look forward to every year.

Many of our “alumni” have gone on to major in performance art and even work in the entertainment field. It is great to follow their careers as we continue to offer music and theater education and produce high-quality performances every summer.

Since 2016, in addition to the above-mentioned shows, we have produced productions of The Lion King, Mary Poppins, Matilda, Into the Woods, Legally Blonde, Shrek, and The Lightning Thief. We hope to continue making these productions possible, as we try to find a more permanent home, with the help of our community so we can continue to serve the people of Flagler County and beyond.

Meet The Team

The Director

ANN SHARRER PARIS (B.A., B.S., MA Ed.) brings a lifetime of experience as both a performer and educator. After private study in Hollywood and earning degrees in Musical Theater and Music Education from California State University, Long Beach, she worked with Summer Stock Theater companies across the western and midwestern United States. She has choreographed for music groups throughout the Los Angeles area and taught dance in studios in Long Beach and Anaheim.

Her performance career includes work in theme park entertainment and international tours with the Continental Singers and Orchestra, the California State University Choir, and American Entertainment Productions. She has performed across the U.S., Eastern and Western Europe, Australia, Egypt, Israel, and Canada.                                                      Fun fact: Ann performed at the funeral of legendary singer Karen Carpenter.

A master at turning “nothing into something,” Ann chartered the choral and dance programs at Gateway High School (Osceola County) and is known for revitalizing struggling choral departments. She has served as Music Director at the Helen Stairs Theater, Choreographer at the Sands Theater, and taught and choreographed for the Daytona Beach College show choir.

Upon earning her Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Phoenix and teaching for several years in Volusia County, Ann most recently “retired” from teaching chorus, dance, drama, and musical theater in Flagler County Schools. She has also served as an adjunct instructor at Daytona State College and continues to work with private voice students.

Ann’s students have gone on to secure roles in community and professional theater throughout Central Florida, Disney, Universal Studios, and New York. They have excelled in local, state, and national competitions and perform regularly.

In addition to her family and professional commitments, Ann is deeply invested in her community. She has volunteered countless hours as a performer, consultant, and director for approximately 20 full-scale church, community, and civic productions. Her recent directing credits include The Lightning Thief and Alice in Wonderland, and she has also appeared in The Producers and Anything Goes in Jacksonville.

Ann has choreographed numerous college productions, produced children’s music, dance, and art festivals, and serves as an adjudicator for the Florida Vocal Association, NATS, and Florida Thespian Festivals. She is the Founder and Creative Director of Flagler Performing Arts Academy, a non-profit organization established in 2016 and now proudly entering its 10th year.She is also the author of the “Vocal Relaxation System,” a comprehensive singing course available upon request.

The Assistant Director

YSA BOOTHMAN joined Flagler Performing Arts Academy (FPAA) as Assistant Director in the spring of 2024. Previously she was a performer at our Summer Intensives before they were called Summer Intensives. While still a relatively young performer herself, Ysa has been involved in the performing arts for almost as long as she’s been able to talk. She has been participating in church productions since 2009, first as an actor then singer, writer, very young director, choreographer, and even occasionally as costume and set designer.

In 2014 Ysa had her first big audition for a show in front of a big audience performing nine shows in a 600-seat auditorium which, funny enough was BIG: The Musical at Lakewood Theatre in Madison, Maine. At 7 years old she had a brief but big spotlight dance number.

During 2015 she was included in the local high school musical production to play a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz. In 2017 she won 1st place in a national syndicated radio program’s singing competition, featuring The Star-Spangled Banner (her video submission is still out there if you care to look for it).
From 2016-2018 Ysa was a member of the homeschool All Purpose Theatre Company (APTC) in Waterville, Maine, taking on roles such as the Narrator in a comedic retelling of the Tragedy of Julius Caesar and Dunyazad the younger sister in the play Scheherazade.

In 2018 she was cast as the lead understudy in the classic musical Annie at the Waterville Opera House, in Waterville, Maine. She also performed the role of mother in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day at the Children’s Museum & Theater of Maine in Portland.

In 2019 she started the Neighborhood Theatre Company (NTC), which presented two neighborhood productions.  The venue? The living room in her house. More than forty people packed the house for each performance in support of Ysa and her homeschool friends as they put on the American Girl play – Home Is Where The Heart Is followed six months later by her original play – A Little Christmas.
Ysa also created Francesca Cunningham Mysteries, a group of short stories with worksheets and challenges for older elementary children.

2020-2022 was her time as a performer with FPAA, ensemble in Frozen Jr., Stepmother, and Granny in Into The Woods Jr., and her most memorable role among the kids at FPAA today: Donkey, in Shrek Jr.

Though not actively enrolled at Flagler Palm Coast High School she joined the FPC Thespians for two shows, most notably the 2022 Spring musical Singin’ In The Rain in the ensemble and as the understudy to the lead role of Kathy.

Ysa was cast in the ensemble at Halifax Repertory Theater in Ormond Beach, for their first official production, “I HRT Broadway.”

Daytona State College’s 2023 Holidazzle production found Ysa singing and dancing as Poppy. 

In the summer of 2025, a top her work directing The Lightning Thief, she took on the role of Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables: The Musical at The Little Theatre of New Smyrna Beach. A highlight of her resume if ever there was one.

Ysa packed many seasons of performance and leadership into her early years and while still enjoying the opportunity to bask in the spotlight every now and then she finds a great passion in helping to craft what the spotlight illuminates.