Pink feather boas, silk brocades, Marimekko muumuus, granny dresses, fur coats, letter jackets, evening gowns, union suits, velvet capes, and more than one pair of boots made for walking: In the attic of Cronig’s Market, on State Road in Tisbury, hang racks and racks of everyday clothes that have evolved – as the more idiosyncratic and purposeful clothes sometimes do – into theatre costumes.

Climb into the attic and you see them slung from the ceiling and over the weatherworn asphalt shingles of the old roof of the store. Look under the eaves, and you find boxes of shoes, hats, canes, and masks. Look down rows of shelving, and you discover props of every kind, including what might be Alice in Wonderland’s tea set. They all belong to the Vineyard Playhouse of Vineyard Haven, whose twenty-fifth summer season features works by seasonal and year-round Island playwrights Robert Brustein and Jules Feiffer, among others, and begins June 14 with a production of The Children’s Hour, by Lillian Hellman, directed by M.J. Bruder Munafo, the artistic director of the playhouse.

When owner Steve Bernier renovated Cronig’s in the mid-1990s, it was easier to build a new roof over the old one than rip the old one off. The result was a weirdly steep-pitched attic floor. “We couldn’t do anything with that space,” Steve says. “It was dead to us. So when the Vineyard Playhouse approached me about using it for storage, it was a win-win for both of us – and a good opportunity to provide some behind-the-scenes community service.”

To me, that peculiar room full of costumes that sits above all the organic chickens, instant pudding, frozen periogis, and cans of collard greens is like the attic of a daffy old aunt, a forgotten star from the silent-film era who saved something from every movie she ever made. Now when I’m on my daily milk-eggs-chocolate-butter-bacon-and-duck run at Cronig’s, I run into friends and neighbors – contractors, chefs, and travel agents – and I let my mind wander from the aisles up to the attic: He’d look good in a Nancy Sinatra wig, I find myself thinking. The Norma Desmond–type gown would fit him perfectly (nice shoulders). And she should get the pink bunny ears and fuzzy tail."

And what do I pretend to dress up in? Well, that all depends on what’s for dinner.